Department for Transport

Motor Vehicles: Insurance

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to support British citizens driving in EU countries after 29 March 2019 who do not hold a green card.

Chris Grayling: If Green Cards are required from 29th March 2019, motorists should contact their vehicle insurer who will be able to provide them with advice on Green Card requirements and issue them with any relevant documentation. This still applies if an individual is in an EU country after exit day and does not hold a Green Card. It should be noted that the UK will meet all the requirements for remaining part of the Green Card-free circulation zone on our exit from the EU and we continue to urge the European Commission to issue an implementing decision that would ensure UK motorists can drive in the EU without a Green Card and vice versa.

Airports: Wheelchairs

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure that baggage handlers at UK airports are trained to handle wheelchairs.

Jesse Norman: The Government seeks to ensure equal access to air travel for all. Through the recently launched Aviation 2050 consultation the Department is considering a new Passenger Charter that will raise standards and enhance services for passengers, including disabled people and those with reduced mobility. This includes increased uptake of disability awareness training programmes for ground handlers, and improving the storage standards for wheelchairs in the hold.

Motor Vehicles: Environment Protection

Chris Law: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what comparative assessment he has made of the environmental footprint of motorcycles and single occupant cars on comparable commuting journeys; and if he will make a statement.

Jesse Norman: The Department for Transport publishes statistics regarding emissions from road vehicles per vehicle kilometre in urban conditions. This includes both petrol and diesel cars, and motorcycles. The latest statistics, from December 2018, are available in Table ENV0302 of Transport Statistics Great Britain. This is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/energy-and-environment-data-tables-env#pollutants-emissions-and-noise-env03 .

Roads: Lighting

Mr Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure that street lighting is powered by renewable sources; and if he will make a statement.

Jesse Norman: Street lighting is a matter for each individual highway authority. Some authorities have or are in the process of switching to LED lighting, which is helping to save energy. There are also examples of authorities using alternative energy sources such as solar panels to power highway-related systems that do not consume much energy, such as traffic signs.

Road Traffic Control: Schools

Mr Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what guidance he gives to local authorities on the restriction on traffic near schools at opening and closing times; and if he will make a statement.

Jesse Norman: Local authorities have powers to restrict traffic near schools using Traffic Regulation Orders. The Department for Transport provides guidance to local authorities on traffic signs that can be used to indicate restrictions on traffic in various Chapters of the Traffic Signs Manual. It is for the relevant local authority to decide on what restrictions are needed on their roads, taking into consideration local needs and factors at specific locations.

Transport for the North

Ian Mearns: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which Transport for the North board meetings (a) he and (b) his Ministers plan to attend in 2019; and whether his Department plans to discuss the ongoing Northern Rail industrial dispute at (i) Transport for the North board meetings and (ii) any other ministerial meetings.

Andrew Jones: I will be attending the meeting on 7th February and a Government minister will aim to attend each future meeting of the Board wherever possible. The agenda of each meeting is set in advance by TfN.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Domestic Appliances: Counterfeit Manufacturing

Carolyn Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of  the potential merits of providing additional funding to Safety at Ports and Borders to prevent counterfeit and substandard electrical goods from being imported.

Kelly Tolhurst: The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) is providing increased support for local authority led teams at ports and borders, including the National Trading Standards Safety at Ports project. This aims to improve the capacity and capability of local Trading Standards conducting checks on goods entering the country.

Domestic Appliances: Counterfeit Manufacturing

Carolyn Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with online platforms on preventing sales of counterfeit and substandard electrical goods on their websites.

Kelly Tolhurst: BEIS officials are currently holding roundtable meetings with representatives from online platforms in an effort to identify and agree voluntary measures to reduce the availability of IP infringing goods on their platforms.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Pay

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 31 January 2019 to Question 211109 on Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Contracts, if he will set out the rates of pay in numeric format of staff employed through his Department's facilities management contractor to undertake work for his Department.

Richard Harrington: Specific rates are a matter for each individual contractor, but assurances are provided to ensure full compliance with the requirements of the National Living Wage. In April 2019 Government will increase the National Living Wage to £8.21 per hour. This is an above inflation increase that will see a full-time minimum wage worker over £2,750 better off over the course of a year compared to when the policy was introduced.We value all of our staff and they all deserve a fair and competitive wage, whether they are directly employed or working through our contractors. The Department has agreed with its facilities management contractor that they will align the pay of their cleaning, catering, mailroom and security staff to the appropriate median rates for that occupation, as identified in the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. The median applies from 1 March 2019 and will be aligned annually.

Business: Location

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of UK-based businesses based in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) the UK that are considering relocating out of the UK in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

Richard Harrington: The Government is working to ensure an orderly exit from the EU and a good deal for the UK. We continue to engage extensively with business across the country, including the West Midlands, to understand their concerns. The Government is providing businesses with the latest advice and information to ensure that they are prepared for all aspects of leaving the EU. The guidance published at https://euexitbusiness.campaign.gov.uk/ helps businesses locate the most relevant information based on their sector and activities.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Asia: Diplomatic Relations

Stephen Gethins: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of climate change on the UK's diplomatic relations with states in Asia.

Stephen Gethins: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of climate change on the UK's diplomatic relations with African countries.

Mark Field: The effects of Climate Change are already being felt across Asia and Africa, affecting those least responsible most severely. These effects will worsen over time and are for some already existential. To tackle this challenge, the UK is already engaging with countries and regions across both continents, including at a sub-national level, taking into account wide variations in economic development, emissions trajectory and climate change vulnerability. There is no doubt, however, that more must be done to deepen our mutual understanding and our practical and diplomatic cooperation with both regions to succeed. This is why the government, including through the £5.8bn of International Climate Finance, and relevant Prosperity Fund programmes, as well as many UK businesses and non-government bodies, is working with countries in Asia and Africa to increase their reliance to climate change, reduce emissions, and transition to a sustainable low carbon economy.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Brexit

Sir Vince Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much of the £75 million allocated to his Department for Brexit preparations in 2018-19 and 2019-20 has been allocated to preparing for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Sir Alan Duncan: ​The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has been allocated £35.2 million by HM Treasury for EU Exit costs for 2018-19 and an additional £3.5 million for 2019-20. Using this funding and other internal reprioritisation, we have strengthened our diplomatic network in the UK and across Europe so that it is better able to represent and promote British interests and engage with our European partners in support of a successful EU Exit. As with the rest of the civil service, the FCO is preparing for all potential outcomes, including No Deal.

Scandinavia: Antisemitism

Rosie Duffield: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his counterparts in (a) Norway, (b) Finland and (c) Sweden on antisemitism.

Sir Alan Duncan: I have not had recent discussions on antisemitism with my counterparts, but our Posts in the region engage on such issues regularly.

Italy: Refugees

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to the Italian Government on that Government's decision not to allow the Sea-Watch crew and the refugees that it has picked up dock.

Sir Alan Duncan: ​Sea-Watch 3 disembarked the 47 rescued migrants on board at Catania (Sicily) on 31 January.

Forced Marriage: Repatriation

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the number of people in forced marriages his Department has helped to repatriate in each of the last ten years broken down by country; and how many of those people have (a) signed emergency loan agreements, (b) been given financial assistance without needing to sign emergency loan agreements.

Harriett Baldwin: Repatriation data was not recorded separately prior to 2016. Estimates for 2016 and 2017 (latest year for which estimates are available) are as follows:2016: Forced Marriage Unit assisted 57 repatriations: 21 from Pakistan; 8 from Bangladesh; remaining 26 from 16 different countries. 17of those who were assisted signed an emergency loan agreement.2017: Forced Marriage Unit assisted 29 repatriations: 12 from Pakistan; 12 from Somalia; remaining 5 from 4 different countries. 9 of those who were assisted signed an emergency loan agreement.There are different routes available for funding repatriation costs which differ according to age and individual circumstances, including whether a Forced Marriage Protection Order has been made. The Forced Marriage Unit do not keep a record of the different funding routes used by victims. Prior to 9 January 2019, emergency loans were offered to some adults to assist with repatriation costs as a last resort. As from 9 January, no victim of forced marriage helped to return to the UK by the Forced Marriage Unit will be asked to take out a loan for their repatriation costs. The Government has agreed to ensure that those victims who have outstanding loans will have no further cost fall to them.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Public Expenditure

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will set out his Departments operations with a budget of more than £500,000 in (a) strategic programmes, (b) bilateral programmes and (c) FCO services in the 2018-19 financial year.

Sir Alan Duncan: ​We publish details of departmental spending over £25,000 on a monthly basis on gov.uk, which includes expenditure under our departmental policy programme and expenditure to FCO Services.

British Overseas Territories: Companies

Valerie Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the oral contribution by the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office to the Foreign Affairs Committee on The future of the UK Overseas Territories on 18 December 2018, Q221, HC1464 and section 51(2) of the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018, on what date his Department will require the Governments of Overseas Territories to introduce publicly accessible registers of the beneficial ownership of companies within their jurisdictions; and whether that date is consistent with the 31 December 2020 target in section 51(2) of the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018.

Sir Alan Duncan: The Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 states that “the Secretary of State must no later than 31 December 2020, prepare a draft Order in Council requiring the government of any British Overseas Territory that has not introduced a publicly accessible register of the beneficial ownership of companies within its jurisdiction to do so”.The UK Government will therefore prepare the draft legislation by this date, requiring an Overseas Territory that has not introduced a public register, to do so by December 2023. This is consistent with the both the Act and the Government’s call for all countries to make public registers the global norm by 2023.

Attorney General

Attorney General: Brexit

Sir Vince Cable: To ask the Attorney General, how much of the £3 million allocated to his Department for Brexit preparations in 2019-20 has been allocated to preparing for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Robert Buckland: HM Treasury has allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and the Devolved Administrations for EU exit preparations so far. This breaks down as: £412m of additional funding over the spending review period for the Department for Exiting the European Union, Department for International Trade and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office at Autumn Statement 2016. £286m of additional funding for 17/18 (a full breakdown of which can be found in Supplementary Estimates 17/18). Over £1.5bn of additional funding for 18/19. A full breakdown of the allocations can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS540, laid on the 13th March. Over £2bn of additional funding for 19/20. A full breakdown of the allocations can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS1205, laid on the 18th December. The funding provided is in addition to the Attorney General’s Office’s efforts to reprioritise from business as usual toward preparations for the UK’s departure from the EU. This funding is to support preparation for all scenarios.

Crown Prosecution Service

Steve McCabe: To ask the Attorney General, what the change has been in the overall caseload for the Crown Prosecution Service in each year from 2010 to 2018.

Steve McCabe: To ask the Attorney General, what the change has been in the overall case load for the Crown Prosecution Service between May 2010 and September 2018.

Robert Buckland: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) maintains a central record of the volumes of completed prosecutions, or caseload, as a count of the number of defendants and collates the data collected in financial years. The table below shows the number of finalised prosecution outcomes during each year from 2010-11 to 2017-18 and the year on year change in both volume and percent.   Prosecution CaseloadVolume Change% Change2010-2011958,834--2011-2012896,505-62,329-6.5%2012-2013806,458-90,047-10.0%2013-2014736,696-69,762-8.7%2014-2015664,490-72,206-9.8%2015-2016637,778-26,712-4.0%2016-2017588,021-49,757-7.8%2017-2018533,161-54,860-9.3%Data Source: CPS Management Information System It is important to be aware that the types of cases prosecuted have changed significantly in the period between 2010 and 2018. The CPS is prosecuting more serious and complex cases as evidenced by a 38% increase in homicide, a 26% increase in fraud and forgery and a 26% increase in sexual offences cases. During this period, minor motoring cases have fallen by 67% across England and Wales. This followed changes to the list of specified offences made in 2012 which transferred responsibility for prosecuting many low level motoring offences back to the police.

Crown Prosecution Service: Staff

Steve McCabe: To ask the Attorney General, how many staff were employed in each department within the CPS on (a) 30 May 2010 and (b) 30 September 2018.

Robert Buckland: (a) As of 30 June 2010*, the Crown Prosecution Service employed a total of 8,569 staff across its Area/Regional and HQ functions: DepartmentHeadcount TotalCPS Headquarters574Central Casework530CPS Direct153East Midlands547Eastern419North West Group772London1278Merseyside & Cheshire355North East446South East406South West347Yorkshire & Humberside Group700Thames & Chiltern439Cymru Wales441Wessex368West Midlands group794Grand Total8,569 Note: *CPS HR management information in relation to staff in post is only available from June 2010. (Data Source Trent HR Database as at 31.01.2019) (b) As of 30 September 2018, the Crown Prosecution Service employed a total of 5,936 staff across its Area/Regional and HQ functions. DepartmentHeadcount Total  CPS Headquarters502  Central Casework Divisions706  CPS Direct181  Cymru Wales275  East Midlands318  East of England258  London North456  London South476  Mersey Cheshire235  North East259  North West464  South East251  South West219  Thames & Chiltern271  Wessex217  West Midlands422  Yorkshire & Humberside426  Grand Total5936

Crown Prosecution Service: West Midlands

Steve McCabe: To ask the Attorney General, how many staff were employed in each Department in the CPS in the West Midlands on (a) 30 May 2010 and (b) 30 September 2018.

Robert Buckland: (a) As of 30 June 2010* a total of 794 staff were employed within what was the Crown Prosecution Service West Midlands Group. DepartmentHeadcount Total CPS Staffordshire129 CPS Warwickshire35 CPS West Mercia133 CPS West Midlands497 Grand Total794 (b) As of 30 September 2018 a total of 422 staff were employed within the Crown Prosecution Service West Midlands. Each constituent Unit (Department) of the Crown Prosecution Service West Midlands is shown below: DepartmentHeadcount Total  West Midlands Area Business Centre14  West Midlands Complex Casework Unit23  West Midlands Crown Court Unit171  West Midlands Magistrates Court Unit158  West Midlands Management Unit17  West Midlands RASSO Unit39  Grand Total422  Note: * CPS HR management information in relation to staff in post is only available from June 2010. (Data Source Trent HR Database as at 31.01.2019) Following an organisational restructure in 2011, the separate Areas of Crown Prosecution Service Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Mercia and West Midlands combined under a single Chief Crown Prosecutor leadership to form the Area of Crown Prosecution Service West Midlands.

Department of Health and Social Care

Influenza: Vaccination

Thangam Debbonaire: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of availability of the 2018-19 seasonal flu vaccine.

Steve Brine: Public Health England (PHE) provides influenza vaccines centrally for the children’s influenza programme. Centrally purchased influenza vaccines are carefully monitored by PHE to ensure there is equitable distribution across England and sufficient in-date vaccine for patients who present throughout the season. General practitioners and other providers are directly responsible for the influenza vaccine supplies used to deliver the national influenza programme to the other eligible groups. PHE maintains oversight to help facilitate a constant supply of vaccine, liaising with vaccine manufacturers to ascertain whether there are any manufacturing problems which could impact the running of the programme at a national level. This winter, eligible adults aged 18-64 were offered a quadrivalent influenza vaccine, and those aged 65 and over were offered a newly licensed adjuvanted trivalent influenza vaccine (aTIV). There were a number of short-term localised shortages of both vaccines reported, particularly for aTIV due to staggered deliveries from the manufacturer between September and November. The NHS managed these shortages locally, but some patients had to wait longer than usual to be vaccinated. However, there was no overall shortage of either vaccine.

Measles

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many cases of measles there have been since 7 July 2018.

Steve Brine: Public Health England publishes quarterly data on the number of measles cases in England. The latest data show that from July to September 2018 there were 143 cases of measles in England. Data are available to view at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/measles-mumps-and-rubella-laboratory-confirmed-cases-in-england-2018 The next quarterly report, with data up to end December 2018, will be published at the end of February.

Air Pollution

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether (a) his Department, (b) Public Health England and (c) the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants have (i) made, (ii) commissioned and (iii) received assessments on the comparative levels of toxicity of (A) PM 0.1, (B) PM1 and (C) PM2.5 from different sources of emissions.

Steve Brine: Recent assessments have been undertaken of the health effects of long-term exposure to the air pollution mixture in the United Kingdom. This was based on studies reporting associations of mortality risk with fine particulate matter (PM2.5), which includes PM1 and PM0.1, and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), available to view at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nitrogen-dioxide-effects-on-mortality The Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) advised that, although it is unlikely that all components of particulate matter have the same potency in causing health effects, the available evidence is insufficient to allow further quantification. The COMEAP report can be viewed at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/particulate-air-pollution-health-effects-of-exposure Reviews by the Health Effects Institute and World Health Organization concluded that there is currently limited evidence on the effects on health of ultrafine particles (PM0.1). These reviews can be viewed at the following links: https://www.healtheffects.org/publication/understanding-health-effects-ambient-ultrafine-particles http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/193108/REVIHAAP-Final-technical-report-final-version.pdf?ua=1 Public Health England has no plans to engage in work on the comparative levels of toxicity of PM0.1, PM1 and PM2.5 from different sources of emissions.

Air Pollution

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 16 January 2019 to Question 206215 on Air Pollution, if he will publish the evidence held by (a) his Department and (b) Public Health England of the effect on human health of ultrafine particles (i) PM0.1 and (ii) PM1.

Steve Brine: Recent assessments have been undertaken of the health effects of long-term exposure to the air pollution mixture in the United Kingdom. This was based on studies reporting associations of mortality risk with fine particulate matter (PM2.5), which includes PM1 and PM0.1, and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), available to view at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nitrogen-dioxide-effects-on-mortality Reviews by the Health Effects Institute and World Health Organization concluded that there is currently limited evidence on the effects on health of ultrafine particles (PM0.1). These reviews can be viewed at the following links: https://www.healtheffects.org/publication/understanding-health-effects-ambient-ultrafine-particles http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/193108/REVIHAAP-Final-technical-report-final-version.pdf?ua=1 Public Health England has no plans to engage in work on the effects of PM1 and PM0.1 particles on human health.

Air Pollution

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to his Answer of 16 January 2019 to Question 206215 pn Air Pollution, if he will direct Public Health England to make an assessment of the effect on respiratory and cardiovascular health of exposure to ultrafine particles (a) in and (b) outside the vicinity of waste incinerators.

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for his policies of the Fundació ENT study entitled Air Pollution from Waste Disposal: Not for Public Breath, published in November 2015, which concluded that the current design of the EU legal framework allows for emission limit values that face an unavoidable allocation of health and environmental risks to those citizens living nearby incineration and co-incineration activities.

Steve Brine: Assessments of the risks of pollutants to health are informed by the weight of the available evidence, rather than being undertaken on the basis of an individual study. Public Health England (PHE) funded a study to further extend the evidence base as to whether emissions from modern municipal waste incinerators (MWIs) affect human health. Study outputs concluded that the amount of particulate matter people are exposed to from municipal waste incinerators emissions is very low in Great Britain. The document can be viewed at the following link: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.6b06478 When consulted, PHE provides an expert and independent opinion to the regulator, the Environment Agency, on the potential impacts, including from particulate matter, on human health of emissions arising from existing or proposed regulated facilities, such as MWIs. PHE’s position is that well run and regulated modern MWIs are not a significant risk to public health. This view is based on detailed assessments of the effects of air pollutants on health and on the fact that modern MWIs make a small contribution to local concentrations of air pollutants. This document can be viewed at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/municipal-waste-incinerator-emissions-to-air-impact-on-health PHE has no plans to engage in work on the effects of ultrafine particles on respiratory and cardiovascular disease in and outside the vicinity of waste incinerators.

Smoking

Bob Blackman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department spent from the public purse on campaigns to promote the cessation of smoking in 2017-18.

Steve Brine: Expenditure on smoking cessation advertising campaigns by Public Health England in 2017-18 was £1.99 million. Campaign spending is defined as covering only media spend. Figures are net, rounded to nearest £10,000. Figures exclude value added tax. Media spend includes expenditure for advertising on television, radio, national press, regional press, out of home (outdoor), cinema and digital. Recruitment advertising and media partnerships are not included.

Department of Health and Social Care: Brexit

Sir Vince Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 16 January 2019 to Question 207547 on Department of Health and Social Care: Brexit, how much of the £71 million allocated to his Department for Brexit preparations in 2018-19 and 2019-20 has been allocated to preparing for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Stephen Hammond: Of the £71.1 million funding the Department has been allocated for 2018/19 and 2019/20, we are unable to provide a breakdown of the amount of funding allocated to ‘no deal’ preparations specifically, as this cannot be separated from European Union exit work as a whole across the Department.

Drugs

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that GP surgeries are supplied with adequate guidance for patients on their medication in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

Stephen Hammond: Guidance issued to all National Health Service trusts, pharmacies and general practices by the Department and NHS England has informed them of our plans for ensuring continuity of supply of medicines and advised them that they can expect to be able to continue accessing medicines through their existing supply routes in the event of a ‘no deal’ European Union exit. General practitioners (GPs) and providers should continue to prescribe medicines and other medical products as normal. On 23 August 2018, my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care sent a letter to NHS England outlining preparations for the EU Exit, including in relation to General Practice. On 21 December 2018, the EU Exit Operational Guidance for the Health and Social Care system, including GPs, was issued. On 18 January 2019, a joint letter from the Department and NHS England from chief pharmacist, Keith Ridge, was sent to GPs, pharmacists and senior leaders within the NHS.

Trimethylaminuria

Emma Hardy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for research into methods for (a) treating and (b) curing Trimethylaminuria.

Caroline Dinenage: The Government supports research into common and rare diseases through the Department funded National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in England. In 2017/18 the NIHR funded one research study into the trimethylaminuria disease which took place at the NIHR Guy’s and St Thomas’ Biomedical Research Centre and NIHR Guy’s and St Thomas’ Clinical Research Facility. The study investigated the feasibility of a novel assessment tool to measure the treatment efficacy in patients suffering from Trimethylaminuria. The study ran for nine months and finished in February 2018. The Government also supports research into rare diseases through the Medical Research Council (MRC), funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. An MRC award of £361,000 from 2013 to 2016 supported researchers at University College London in testing a new therapy to be used for the treatment of trimethylaminuria. Further information on the project, including publications outlining the results can be found at the following link: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FK015494%2F1 Rare diseases patients also benefit from the pioneering research under the 100,000 Genomes Project. As of October 2018, over 3,000 researchers in 387 United Kingdom and international institutions were part of Genomics England’s Clinical Interpretation Partnership, which have been set up to improve understanding of genomic medicine and its application to healthcare; improve understanding of diseases; and lead the way to developing new diagnostics and treatments.

Arthritis

Ben Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report entitled Room to Manoeuvre, published by Arthritis Research, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the recommendations made in that report.

Caroline Dinenage: We know that aids and adaptations can greatly enhance the quality of life of people with arthritis, in addition to supporting them to be as independent as possible in their own homes. The ‘Room to Manoeuvre’ report highlights their importance and identifies areas for improvement. The Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) supports older and disabled people, including those with arthritis, on low-incomes to adapt their homes to make them safe and suitable for their needs. Funding for the DFG had already more than doubled from £220 million in 2015-16 to £468 million in 2018-19. Autumn Budget 2018 announced an additional £55 million for 2018-19. An independent review of the DFG - which assesses how the Grant is currently working and makes evidence-based recommendations on how it could change in the future – was published in December 2018. Together with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government we are carefully considering the review’s findings. The Government will also be publishing a Green Paper at the earliest opportunity to bring forward proposals to improve the social care system, and the role of housing will be a crucial part of considerations.

Health Services: Learning Disability

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on reducing health inequalities for people with a learning disability.

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effect that the provision of social care has on the level of hospital admissions by people with a learning disability.

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that reasonable adjustments are provided to people with a learning disability when using the NHS.

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment he has made of the merits of community-based social care and assessment and treatment units.

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on decreasing the number of people with a learning disability in assessment and treatment units.

Caroline Dinenage: Annual general practitioner (GP) health checks are available to patients on the GP register who are aged 14 years and over who have a learning disability. Health checks and resulting action plans help to reduce recognised health inequalities. The number of people who had an annual health check increased by 10% in 2017/18 compared with 2016/17, to 147,180. The NHS Long Term Plan commits to improve uptake of the existing annual health checks so that at least 75% of those eligible have a health check each year. NHS Improvement has introduced Learning Disability Improvement Standards for NHS trusts in England to help ensure that trusts monitor and review the care they provide to people with a learning disability or autism. Inclusion of the improvement standards in the NHS Standard Contract 2019/20, mandated by NHS England for use by commissioners of all healthcare services except primary care, means that all providers must have regard to the improvement standards. NHS England and NHS Digital, in partnership with patient and carer groups and other key stakeholders, are working to develop a national ‘reasonable adjustment’ flag to indicate on electronic patient records, the reasonable adjustments which services can make to help people with learning disability access healthcare. We will shortly consult on introducing mandatory learning disability training, which would support staff to make reasonable adjustments for people with a learning disability. Since the investigation into the abuse at Winterbourne View and other hospitals, there has been a cross-Government commitment to transform care and support for people with a learning disability or autism who display behaviour that challenges, recognising that people with learning disability achieve better health outcomes living in community settings, receiving social care support and community health services, than as inpatients. ‘Building the Right Support’ set out a plan to build community capacity to allow people to leave hospital (and prevent crisis and therefore admission) to ensure that people with a learning disability or autism are supported to live in the community. There were 2,325 inpatients with learning disability or autism at the end of December 2018, a reduction of nearly 20% from the baseline number of inpatients in March 2015. Since 2015, there have been over 5,700 discharges into the community, including over 620 people who had previously been in hospital five years or more, and 413 inpatient beds decommissioned. The NHS Long Term Plan commits to implementing the ‘Building the Right Support’ plan in full, achieving a 35% reduction in inpatients as quickly as possible and no later than the end of 2019/20, and at least a 50% reduction in inpatients (compared to the figure in 2015) by the end of 2023/4 and ensuring that every local economy has specialist community provision.

Learning Disability: Nurses

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on increasing the number of learning disability nurses in the NHS.

Caroline Dinenage: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes MP) on 22 January to Question 209843.

Social Services

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an estimate of the level of unmet need for social care in England.

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to tackle the level of unmet need for social care in England.

Caroline Dinenage: All councils have statutory duties to look after the vulnerable, elderly and disabled people in their area. By passing the Care Act 2014, the Government established a national threshold that defines the care needs that local authorities must meet. This eliminates the postcode lottery of eligibility across England. In 2017/18 local authorities in England advised over 500,000 people on how to access services to meet their care needs. This includes services provided by leisure, housing, transport and care providers as well as voluntary groups. The Government has given councils access to around £10 billion more adult social care funding from 2017-18 to 2019-20. As people live longer than ever before we need to ensure the social care system is sustainable in the longer term. This is why the Government has committed to publishing a Green Paper at the earliest opportunity setting out its proposals for reform.

Third Sector

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the role of the voluntary and community sector in supporting the implementation of the NHS Long Term Plan.

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with NHS England on the role of non-clinical interventions in achieving the ambitions set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.

Caroline Dinenage: Minsters maintain close contact with NHS England on delivering the ambitions in the Long Term Plan, which recognised the value of non-clinical interventions in improving health and wellbeing. In the Long Term Plan, NHS England committed to delivering at least £4.5 billion of new investment in primary medical and community health services over the next five years. Part of this investment will support the recruitment of over 1,000 trained social prescribing link workers - in place by the end of 2020/21 rising further by 2023/24, with the aim that over 900,000 people are able to be referred to social prescribing schemes by then. Social prescribing is a non-clinical intervention that enables general practitioners and other frontline healthcare professionals to refer people to ‘activities’ in their community, such as chess, book clubs, exercise groups, instead of offering only medicalised solutions. The first point of referral is usually a voluntary sector link worker who can talk to each person about the things that matter to them. Together they can co-produce a social prescription to access community groups and voluntary organisations.The voluntary and community sector has been an important part of local health economies for many years working in close partnership with statutory providers, and this is recognised in the Long Term Plan. In addition to social prescribing, the Long Term Plan also set identified a range of other areas in which the voluntary sector will play an important role in the delivering of the plan, including: - In the partnership board of every integrated care system;- Working locally to improve mental health, stroke services, and reduce risk of cardiovascular disease; and- As part of the new NHS Assembly, which will bring together a range of organisations and individuals at regular intervals, to advise the boards of NHS England and NHS Improvement as part of the ‘guiding coalition’ to implement the Long Term Plan.

Mental Health Services: Staff

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans the Government has to increase the mental health workforce to achieve the ambitions set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.

Jackie Doyle-Price: Across the National Health Service, expanding the mental health workforce is a top priority. In 2017, we published the Mental Health Workforce plan: ‘Stepping forward to 2020/21: The mental health workforce plan for England’ which sets out our ambition to deliver 21,000 new posts (professional and allied) across the mental health system, with the expectation that 19,000 of these places will be filled by staff employed directly by the NHS. For the commitments set out in the NHS’s Long Term Plan, my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has commissioned Baroness Dido Harding to lead a rapid programme of work to engage with key NHS interests to develop a detailed workforce implementation plan. She will report back in the spring with detailed proposals to grow the workforce rapidly, build a supportive working culture in the NHS and ensure first rate leadership for NHS staff.

Health Services: British Nationals Abroad

Mr Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department holds figures on how many UK citizens below pension age living in the European Union utilise the S1 form certificate of entitlement to access healthcare.

Stephen Hammond: As at 1 April 2018, we have approximately 11,000 combined workers and dependents holding S1 forms. Some of these dependents could be above state pension age. There are also approximately 19,000 S1 pensioner dependents, although we do not know their age as some may be spouses.

Clinical Commissioning Groups: Harrow

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant of the Answer of 11 January 2019 to Question 204365 on Clinical Commissioning Groups: Finance, for what reason Harrow CCG has been placed into financial directions; and if he will make a statement.

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to ensure there is sufficient funding for (a) public health, (b) mental health services and (c) social care since Harrow Clinical Commissioning Group has been placed in financial directions; and if he will make a statement.

Steve Brine: Harrow Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is currently being considered for Legal Directions as a result of the £19.6 million deterioration in the financial position in 2018/19. The CCG planned for a £20.2 million deficit and at month 9 are reporting a £39.8 million forecast outturn deficit. NHS England will be providing the CCG with written confirmation once the decision has been taken. This will enable NHS England to provide the support and oversight required to return the CCG to a sustainable financial position. The CCG has already begun producing a financial recovery plan for submission to NHS England. Within this plan, the CCG will demonstrate how they are meeting Five Year Forward requirements in all areas, including mental health. The draft plan for 2019/20 will set out how the CCG will meet mental health access standards, and the mental health investment standard. Harrow CCG continues to work closely with colleagues in the local authority to ensure they continue to provide high quality adult social care and public health services to the people of Harrow.

Kidney Cancer

Mrs Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to reduce the number of incidences of misdiagnosis of kidney cancer.

Mrs Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government plans to take in the next five years to reduce the number of patients with kidney cancer who are misdiagnosed; and if he will make a statement.

Steve Brine: The NHS Long Term Plan sets out the steps to improve the diagnosis of all cancers, including kidney cancer. This includes the establishment of Rapid Diagnostic Centres across the country to upgrade and bring together the latest diagnostic equipment and expertise. The Centres build on the 10 models being piloted through the Accelerate, Coordinate and Evaluate programme, which have focussed on diagnosing cancers where patients often present with non-specific symptoms and may go to their general practitioner (GP) many times before being sent for tests. The NHS Long Term Plan also reaffirms that all GPs should use the latest evidence-based guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to identify adults at risk of cancer. The NICE NG12 referral guidelines for suspected cancer recommend that GPs refer those aged over 45 with visible hematuria who do not have a urinary tract infection for investigative tests and are available at the following link: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng12/chapter/1-Recommendations-organised-by-site-of-cancer#urological-cancers Over the last two financial years, over £200 million funding has been provided through our Cancer Alliances to transform earlier diagnosis and personalised care.

Kidney Cancer

Mrs Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government has made an assessment of the potential merits of allocating funding to research into the development of a national screening programme for kidney cancer; and if he will make a statement.

Steve Brine: The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) advises ministers and the National Health Service in all four nations about all aspects of screening policy and supports implementation. Using research evidence, pilot programmes and economic evaluation, it assesses the evidence for programmes against a set of internationally recognised criteria. The UK NSC has not reviewed the evidence for a national screening programme for kidney cancer. Therefore an assessment of the potential merits of allocating funding for research has not been made. Nevertheless, Public Health England has funded a Be Clear on Cancer ‘Blood in pee’ campaign which ran across England from July to September 2018, which aimed to raise awareness and improve early diagnosis of bladder and kidney cancer. The NHS Long Term Plan, published on 7 January, sets out a comprehensive package of measures that will transform cancer diagnosis and treatment across the country over the next 10 years; a decade in which patients can expect to see huge improvements in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The aim is to see 55,000 more people surviving cancer for five years in England each year from 2028.

Cancer

Mrs Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS Long Term Plan, what recent steps he has taken to implement the target of diagnosing 75 per cent of cancers at stage one or stage two by 2028; and if he will make a statement.

Mrs Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the evidential basis was for his Department's target of  diagnosing 75 per cent of cancers at stage one or stage two by 2028 and if he made an assessment of the feasibility of setting that target at 2025.

Steve Brine: The NHS Long Term Plan included an ambition that 55,000 more people who are diagnosed with cancer in 2028 will survive for five years. Early diagnosis is a major determinant of cancer survival and NHS England have deliberately set the early diagnosis ambition – to diagnose 75% of cancers at stage 1 and 2 by 2028 - at a level which, under most scenarios, would be more than sufficient to meet the survival ambition. During the development of the plan, clinicians and stakeholders agreed that we should set a stretching ambition to ensure we improve the rate of diagnosis across all cancers, so many more people will survive. The NHS Long Term Plan sets out a number of key steps to achieve this ambition, including through raising greater awareness of symptoms of cancer, accelerating access to diagnosis and treatment and maximising the number of cancers that we identify through screening. Meeting this ambition will also require the National Health Service to harness new technological advances to target at risk patients more effectively; directing our research and innovation effort to the areas where the data tells us we can have the biggest impact; and mobilising the NHS so that we can adopt proven new approaches more quickly.

Medical Equipment

Mrs Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether cryoablation needles will remain available through the High Cost Tariff Excluded Device List with no changes to current funding arrangements in each of the next five years.

Stephen Hammond: The consultation for the 2019/20 national tariff is currently live and information can be found at the following link: https://improvement.nhs.uk/resources/national-tariff-1920-consultation/ It is proposed that radiofrequency, cryotherapy and microwave ablation probes and catheters should remain on the list. The current proposals are for a one year tariff and no decisions have been made on the composition of the high cost excluded device list for future years.

Abortion

Sir Edward Leigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many abortions have been declined as a result of a suspicion of coercion in each of the last five years.

Sir Edward Leigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the review entitled, Reproductive control by others: means, perpetrators and effects published in the BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health in January 2019, if his Department will commission a review of reproductive coercion.

Sir Edward Leigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what procedures his Department uses to monitor the effectiveness of abortion providers in screening for coercion.

Jackie Doyle-Price: Data on the number of abortions declined as a result of a suspicion of coercion is not collected centrally. The Department has no current plans to commission a review of reproductive coercion. The Department takes this issue very seriously. The Department’s required standard operating procedures (RSOPs) for independent sector abortion providers and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists clinical guideline on the Care of Women Requesting Induced Abortion, specify that careful and sensitive enquiry as to the reasons for requesting an abortion should be made, with the opportunity for further discussion, especially where women express any doubts or there may be a suggestion of pressure or coercion. The Care Quality Commission inspects independent sector abortion providers against all of the Department’s RSOPs including looking at the procedures and policies services have in place to ensure that all women and young persons are seeking abortion voluntarily.

Foetuses: Surgery

Sir Edward Leigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the announcement, Spinal surgery for babies in the womb on the NHS, published by NHS England in December 2018, whether painkillers will be administered to the unborn baby; and at what age unborn babies will have that surgery.

Jackie Doyle-Price: Spinal surgery for spina bifida for babies in the womb is among new, innovative treatments that will be routinely available on the National Health Service for the first time. The procedure for unborn children with spina bifida, whose spine and spinal cord do not develop properly, allows pregnant women to be treated closer to home and their families. Pain relief for the unborn baby will be delivered intra-operatively. This is administered before the fetal surgery, after the uterus is opened. The fetus will be monitored during the procedure by ultrasound to check the fetal heart rate. The surgery takes place between 20 and 26 weeks of gestation. This proposed new treatment was independently assessed for its clinical benefit and cost by the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group comprising doctors, health experts and patient representatives.

Mental Health Inter-ministerial Group

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2019 to Question 212352 on Mental Health Inter-ministerial Group, on what date the inter-ministerial group for mental health will next meet.

Jackie Doyle-Price: Holding answer received on 04 February 2019



The Inter-Ministerial Group for mental health is led by my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and is attended by Secretaries of State and Ministers from a wide range of Government departments, and other Government departments when required. We are planning to hold the next meeting at the end of April. Invitations to members of the Group will be issued shortly. Since the last meeting of the Group, the Minister has continued to engage bilaterally with colleagues in other Government departments on specific issues, such as offender health, gambling addiction, physical and mental health of offenders, and in relation to the Online Harms White Paper.

Pregnancy: Mental Health Services

Dr Paul Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 31 January to Question 213465 on Pregnancy: Mental Health Services, what steps is he taking to develop proposals for a six week post-natal maternal health check for all mothers.

Steve Brine: NHS England is undertaking further work to establish a clear picture of current practice in this area. The potential for a six week post-natal maternal health check for all mothers is subject to this work. If taken forward, the check could be introduced from April 2020.

Hospitals: Waiting Lists

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to his Answer of 23 January 2019 to Question 208907 on Hospitals: Waiting Lists, what assessment he has made of the preparedness of the NHS to meet the (a) 95 per cent four-hour A&E waiting time and (b) 92 per cent 18-week referral-to-treatment time targets in (i) 2018-19, (ii) 2019-20 and (iii) 2023-24.

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 January to Question 208907 on Hospitals: Waiting Lists, through what process  the (a) A&E four-hour waiting time and (b) 18-week referral-to-treatment time targets may be changed; and if he will make a statement.

Stephen Hammond: The Government has been clear that through the Long Term Plan, the National Health Service must get back on the path to recovering performance. The plan is clear on proposals for updating urgent and emergency care, and expectations to reduce waits for planned operations. This will be supported by an extra £20.5 billion a year in real terms by 2023/24. In addition, NHS England’s ‘Operational and Planning Guidance for 2019/20’ sets out deliverables against key performance areas and the Government expects the NHS to deliver these actions set – in full – as key steps towards fully recovering performance against core access standards. We must ensure that the health system is focusing on the right, clinically appropriate targets. The ongoing NHS England Clinical Review of Standards will report its interim findings in spring 2019, followed by a period of testing and evaluating of any new or revised standards across the NHS before they are implemented. The review is considering standards for both physical and mental health.

NHS: Standards

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 24 January to Question 209388 on NHS: Standards, if his Department will consult patients and the public before changes to the core access standards are (a) tested and (b) introduced in the NHS.

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 24 January 2019 to Question 209388 on NHS: Standards, whether a consultation on changes to the NHS constitution will take place before changes to the core access standards are (a) tested and (b) introduced in the NHS.

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 24 January 2019 to Question 209388 on NHS: Standards, if his Department will publish that impact assessment; and if he will make a statement.

Stephen Hammond: The clinically-led review of standards was announced by the Prime Minister in June 2018. The review is considering the appropriateness of operational standards for physical and mental health relating to planned, unplanned urgent or emergency care. The Long Term Plan provides a platform upon which innovative models of patient care can and are being developed. In that context, the National Health Service’s National Medical Director has been working with the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, Healthwatch England and many others to consider what matters most to patients, on the clinical issues with the current target regime, and what NHS staff believe will help them provide the best quality care for patients. The review will report its interim findings in the spring of 2019, after which any recommended changes will be carefully field tested across the NHS, including with patients and the public, before they are implemented. An impact assessment will be published following testing. Any changes to the NHS Constitution will be consulted on as is legally required.

Department for Exiting the European Union

Armed Forces

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what discussions he has had with the (a) Home Secretary b) Mayor of London, (c) Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and (d) Secretary of state for Defence on proposals for the use of UK military forces to support civilian services in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

Chris Heaton-Harris: The Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union engages regularly with Ministers from other Government departments and external stakeholders to ensure that businesses and citizens are sufficiently prepared for all eventualities. As part of cross-Whitehall preparations for a ‘no deal’ scenario, all Government departments, including the Ministry of Defence, are considering what resources are required to mitigate any potential impacts.

Fisheries

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, whether he had advanced sight of the European Council statement on a future UK-EU fisheries agreement based on exiting reciprocal access and quota share when she approved the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration.

Chris Heaton-Harris: The Political Declaration makes clear that both the EU and the UK will use their 'best endeavours' to conclude a future fisheries agreement by 1 July 2020. The European Council statement sets out the EU’s view of their position, but ultimately access to our waters will be a matter for negotiation.We remain committed to getting the best deal for the whole of the UK fishing industry, including a fair share of quotas. A Government amendment has been made to the Fisheries Bill placing a legal obligation on the Government, when negotiating a fisheries agreement with the EU, to pursue a greater share of fishing opportunities (looked at in the round) than the UK currently receives under the Common Fisheries Policy.

Department for Education

Teachers: Pensions

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reasons his Department’s consultation includes proposals to support state schools and further education colleges but not higher education institutions with additional costs related to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme.

Nick Gibb: Holding answer received on 29 January 2019



The Department is running a public consultation to gather further evidence on the impact of these changes on higher education institutions and independent schools before finalising funding arrangements for 2019-20. Our initial proposal is based on the fact that state schools and further education institutions are most directly funded by government grants. Our analysis on each sector (state schools, further education, higher education and independent schools) also suggests that these institutions are most exposed to the increase in employer pension contributions, and funding was therefore prioritised on this basis.

Disabled Students' Allowances

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether financial assistance is available for students from the lowest-income households who qualify for the disabled student allowance to help with the £200 required to access specialist equipment.

Chris Skidmore: Students from the lowest-income households who started their courses this year have access to the largest ever amounts of cash-in-hand support for their living costs. Students from lower income households are eligible to receive the maximum amount of maintenance loan available in addition to Disabled Students’ Allowances. Some higher education providers may help students to meet the £200 contribution, but that is at the provider’s discretion.

Disabled Students' Allowances

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 7 December 2018 to Question 203779 on Disabled Students Allowances, what the timetable is for the (a) commencement and (b) conclusion of that research project.

Chris Skidmore: The research was commissioned in late 2017, and the report ‘Evaluation of Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSAs)’ was published on 17 January 2019 and is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-disabled-students-allowances-dsas.​The report sets out students’ views on the effectiveness of the application and assessment processes for DSAs, their levels of satisfaction with the support provided through DSAs and by their higher education providers, and the impact that this support has had on their studies.

Home Education

Paul Masterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information his Department holds on the number of children who are being home educated after leaving school due to bullying.

Anne Milton: ​Information on the number of children being educated at home, and the reasons for their being so educated, is not held centrally.​In 2018, the department held a consultation and call for evidence on home education to gain more information about home education in England. The government’s response to this will be published shortly.

Sex and Relationship Education

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the regulations and guidance on Relationship Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education will be available for schools by July 2019; and if he will make a statement.

Nick Gibb: Following the consultation which closed in November 2018, the Department is currently finalising the regulations and guidance for the new subjects of Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education.The Department plans to publish the Government response to the consultation in Spring 2019 and lay the regulations for debate in Parliament. Once the regulations have completed the Parliamentary process, they will be available to schools and other stakeholders along with the final guidance.Schools will be encouraged and supported to start teaching the new subjects from September 2019 on a voluntary basis, and will then be required to do so from September 2020.

Children in Care

Ann Coffey: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant the Answer of 14 October 2017 to Question 106132 on Children in Care, what progress his Department has made on the assessment of data on the use of out of area placements.

Nadhim Zahawi: The department continues to collect, review and publish data on local authorities’ use of out-of-area placements. From our latest publication, 19% of all children in care were in a placement more than 20 miles from their home at 31 March 2018.The department is currently supporting a number of projects aimed at increasing capacity locally. Through our children’s social care Innovation Programme, we are providing £5 million of funding to 3 projects in London and the South East that will increase the capacity of residential and fostering placements in the area. We are providing 3 local authorities with seed-funding to explore the possibility of setting up new secure provision, where our data shows that out of area placements are particularly common. Later this year we will also be offering all local authorities the opportunity to bid for seed funding to develop new approaches to increasing the sufficiency of foster parents.

English Language and History: Curriculum

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that (a) English and (b) History on the national curriculum is (i) relevant, (ii) modern and (iii) interesting for students.

Nick Gibb: The new national curriculum, first taught in maintained schools from September 2014, was developed in consultation with subject experts, teachers and with regard to international best practice comparisons. These new programmes of study are more rigorous in preparing pupils for the high expectations of working life.The history curriculum sets out core knowledge within a clear chronological framework, ensuring pupils are taught history in a way that helps them understand the development of the modern world in reference to key historical events.The English national curriculum and GCSE syllabuses aims to teach pupils to develop a love of reading. Pupils study our rich literary heritage, from Shakespeare through to modern authors, and also read a range of works from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

Schools: Textbooks

Andrew Lewer: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that every school pupil has access to high quality textbooks and learning resources.

Nick Gibb: The Department announced the £7.7 million Curriculum Fund in January 2018 to help reduce unnecessary workload in curriculum planning and improve pupil outcomes. The Department intends to improve access to high quality complete curriculum programmes, including textbooks and digital resources. As a first step to achieving this, the Department launched a pilot grant on 26 July 2018 to fund lead schools that have already developed high quality programmes in science, history and geography. 11 lead schools with high quality programmes are being awarded grants, and each school will work with at least 6 other participating schools to identify best practice over the course of 2019. The list of successful schools can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/curriculum-fund-programme-pilots-list-of-lead-schools.The Department’s ongoing Teaching for Mastery programme, which aims to embed a ‘mastery’ approach to mathematics, includes provision of up to £2,000 match funding for eligible schools to spend on high quality textbooks recommended through an expert panel process. In addition, the new National Centre for Computing Education will provide a complete curriculum programmes aligned to the content of the national computing curriculum from ages 5 to 16.The new National Centre for Computing Education will provide a repository of free, knowledge-rich resources, aligned to the content of the national computing curriculum at key stages 1-4, to support the teaching of computing in primary and secondary schools.The Department plans to identify high quality complete curriculum programmes across a wider range of subjects to support teachers to provide a broad and balanced curriculum across primary and secondary schools, subject to the outcome of the Curriculum Fund pilots.

Students: Fees and Charges

Mr Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress he has made on reviewing the level of university fees charged to students; and if he will make a statement.

Chris Skidmore: The major review of Post-18 Education and Funding is well under way. As part of the review, we are considering how students and graduates contribute to the cost of their studies including the level, terms and duration of their contribution. We want to make sure that funding arrangements across post-18 education and training are transparent and do not act as barriers to choice or provision, as well as offering value for money for students and taxpayers. The independent panel chaired by Philip Augar will report at an interim stage, before the government concludes the overall review in 2019, as set out in our Terms of Reference, which can be accessed here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/682348/Post_18_review_-_ToR.pdf.

Schools: Food

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the supply of food to schools in the event that UK leaves the EU without a deal.

Nadhim Zahawi: Leaving the EU with a deal remains the government’s top priority. However, a responsible government must plan for every eventuality, including a no deal scenario. The government has been working to plan arrangements that ensure goods can continue to flow into the UK without significant delays from additional controls and checks. We are continuously engaging with a wide range of stakeholders to support industry preparedness, and will continue to work with food suppliers to prepare for a no deal departure from the EU.

Teachers: Pensions

Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the financial effect on universities of increased contributions to the Teachers' Pension Scheme.

Nick Gibb: The Department is running a public consultation until 12 February 2019 to gather evidence on the impact of increased contributions to the Teachers' Pension Scheme (TPS) for all TPS employers, including universities.

Ministry of Justice

Housing: Repairs and Maintenance

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of claims of housing disrepair made in each of the last 10 years.

Lucy Frazer: The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Prisoners: Sexual Offences

David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many sexual offenders were not moved to a local resettlement prison in their area of release due to a lack of spaces available for vulnerable prisoners at those sites in each of the last three years.

Rory Stewart: This information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. Data on the reasons for movement of prisoners is not centrally held. To answer would involve the examination of thousands of individual records at local level. Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) endeavours to hold prisoners in establishments which keep them as close to home as possible so they can (re)build family ties, secure housing, access health services and look for work. Consideration is also given to other factors such as time to serve, offending behaviour and the access to relevant training programmes as per the requirements set out in their sentence plan. Closeness to home is particularly important for those nearing release so they can access resettlement services. To support this, HMPPS will ensure that most prisoners are returned to their home community rehabilitation company or probation area for release where they are managed by either a contracted-out or state provider or the National Probation Service (depending on level of risk). This will provide continuity of service for offenders in custody and the community.

Prisons

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU without a deal on prisons.

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what preparations his Department has undertaken to minimise the potential effect on prisons of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Rory Stewart: Holding answer received on 05 February 2019



In common with all Government Departments, the Ministry of Justice has considered what impacts there might be on its institutions of leaving the EU without a deal, including on prisons. Preparations are underway to ensure we are ready for this scenario. This includes working closely with the Department of Health to make sure that the supply of health products to prisoners is not disrupted; ensuring that our food and retail contracts have alternative arrangements in case of disruption through ports; and co-operating with other Government Departments to prepare for contingencies such as potential traffic disruption in the South East. Delivering a revised deal negotiated with the EU remains the Government’s top priority. This has not changed. The Government is accelerating no deal preparations to ensure the country is prepared for every eventuality. It is the responsible thing to do. As part of cross-Whitehall preparations for a no deal scenario, all Government Departments are considering what resources are required to mitigate any potential impacts and to ensure that businesses and citizens are sufficiently prepared for all eventualities of Brexit.

Full Sutton Prison

Sir Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to his Answer of 19 December 2018 to Question 201129 on Full Sutton Prison, what assurances he has sought that the Traffic Assessment for Full Sutton and the surrounding area was carried out at a representative time of the year in view of the fact that the East Riding is a tourist area; and if he will make a statement.

Rory Stewart: Holding answer received on 05 February 2019



Further to my answer to PQ 201129, the new Transport Assessment (TA) submitted in support of the Outline Planning Application (OPA) for the new prison at Full Sutton, a revision of the one submitted for the approved OPA in July 2017, is road surveys of both peak and off-peak traffic flows, speed data and turning movements at the existing HMP Full Sutton and were commissioned in October 2018. This was considered to be a robust representation of loads on the local network and is within the scope agreed with the Highway Authority. Traffic surveys are carried out outside school holidays because trips on the network are materially lower during these periods. Surveys carried out during school holidays might indicate that junctions are less busy than they are at all other times and so would not be representative. The road survey data was used to calculate trip generation for the new prison, once operational, based on staff and visitor assumptions used for the planning of the larger HM Prison Berwyn in Wrexham which opened in February 2017. The conclusions of the assessment are that the highway network is expected either to continue to operate well within acceptable capacity parameters when the additional traffic generated by the prison is added to the network (in both the construction and operational phases), or that the additional impacts will be low. The department remains committed to previously announced plans, subject to planning approvals, value for money and affordability, to build up to 10,000 modern prison places which, along with the reorganisation of the existing estate, will provide the physical conditions for Governors to achieve better educational, training and rehabilitative outcomes. We will continue to engage with local stakeholders as we develop our plans for the new prison which forms a crucial part of the department’s commitment to deliver modern, safe and decent accommodation.

Personal Injury: Compensation

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many non-road traffic accident cases were for claims of between £1,000 and £2,000 in each of the last five years.

Lucy Frazer: The Ministry of Justice does not hold this data. Information on non-road traffic accidents can be obtained, on request, from Claims Portal Ltd. https://www.claimsportal.org.uk/.

Probation

Kelvin Hopkins: If he will make it his policy to return the probation service to the public sector.

Rory Stewart: We have been clear that probation needs to improve and have taken decisive action to end current CRC contracts and develop more robust arrangements to protect the public and tackle re-offending. We have seen examples of good and innovative work from CRCs. In Cumbria, adapting probation to a rural setting and in London, working with the Mayor’s Office on programmes to rehabilitate offenders involved in knife crime. I still believe that public, private and voluntary organisations all have a role to play. The reforms we are making are crucial to better integrate the system so that different providers can work more effectively together. We will set out our proposals later this year.

Prisons: Contracts

David Hanson: What recent assessment he has made of the performance of prison contractors.

Rory Stewart: Several privately managed prisons are among some of the highest performing prisons across the estate; these include HMP Oakwood, HMP Bronzefield, HMP Dovegate and HMP Ashfield. As well as contractual performance indicators, privately managed prisons are subject to the Prison Performance Tool. These annual ratings are published on gov.uk. Privately managed prison providers achieve the majority of their contractual targets, and their performance is closely monitored by the robust contract management processes in place. Each privately managed prison has an on-site Controller, employed by HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). The Controller has regular review meetings with the contractor against performance indicators.

Treasury

Treasury: Brexit

Sir Vince Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 16 January 2019 to Question 207546 on Treasury: Brexit, how much of the £60 million allocated to his Department for Brexit preparations in 2018-19 and 2019-20 has been allocated to preparing for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Elizabeth Truss: HM Treasury has allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and the Devolved Administrations for EU exit preparations so far. This breaks down as:£412m of additional funding over the spending review period for the Department for Exiting the European Union, Department for International Trade and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office at Autumn Statement 2016.£286m of additional funding for 17/18 (a full breakdown of which can be found in Supplementary Estimates 17/18: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/679738/PU2137_Supplementary_estimates_web.pdf.)Over £1.5bn of additional funding for 18/19. A full breakdown of the allocations can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS540, laid on the 13th March (https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-03-13/HCWS540/)Over £2bn of additional funding for 19/20. A full breakdown of the allocations can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS1205, laid on the 18th December (https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-12-18/HCWS1205/)  HM Treasury was allocated £24.8m for 2018/19 and £35m for 2019/20, which included Arm’s Length Bodies (ALBs).

Food: Exports

Andrea Jenkyns: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to prepare for the UK potentially leaving the EU without a deal in relation to perishable goods being exported.

Mel Stride: The Government recognises the importance of trade fluidity for perishable goods through the UK’s borders. If the UK leaves the EU without a deal, UK-EU trade will be subjected to customs controls and checks. HMRC is working closely with industry to ensure checks minimise delays for legitimate trade, while ensuring compliance. We cannot speculate about what the EU will do.

Food: Trade

Andrea Jenkyns: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of perishable goods checked at customs have (a) exited and (b) entered the UK in the most recent period for which figures are available.

Mel Stride: While it is not possible to provide a breakdown of the proportion of goods checked at customs that are perishable goods, the Government recognises the importance of trade fluidity for perishable goods through the UK’s borders. In relation to EU Exit for customs, HMRC is working closely with industry to ensure interventions are carried out in a way that minimise delays and additional burdens for legitimate trade, while ensuring compliance.

Food: Exports

Andrea Jenkyns: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what precautions customs officers are taking when checking perishable goods exiting the country to avoid the waste of products.

Mel Stride: HMRC do not conduct targeted checks on perishable goods either entering or exiting the country. Checks may be carried out by officers from other Government Departments.

City Deals and Local Growth Deals

Ian C. Lucas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2019 to Question 210500 on Local Growth Deals, how much funding from the public purse was allocated to each (a) city and (b) growth deal announced in (i) 2017, (ii) 2018 and (iii) 2019 in (A) Northern Ireland, (B) Wales and (C) Scotland.

Elizabeth Truss: HM Treasury’s annual publication of a breakdown of the changes in the devolved administrations’ block grant funding includes funding allocated for city and growth deals. The block grant transparency work is published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/block-grant-transparency-december-2018

Capital Investment

Ian C. Lucas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to Answer of 29 January to Question 210499 on Capital Investment, if he will publish the amount of funding allocated by (a) central government for each capital project, (b) each devolved administration for each capital project either fully or partially funded in (i) 2017, (ii) 2018 and (iii) 2019; and what the total cost to the public purse was for each such project in each of those years.

Ian C. Lucas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2019 to Question 210499 on Capital Investment, if he will itemise the amount of money allocated by central government for each capital project it has either fully or partially funded in (a) 2017, (b) 2018 and (c) 2019.

Ian C. Lucas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2019 to Question 210499 on Capital Investment, with reference to capital projects part funded by central government in (a) Northern Ireland, (b) Wales and (c) Scotland in (i) 2017, (ii) 2018 and (iii) 2019, how much and what proportion of the total funding for such projects was from central government.

Ian C. Lucas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2019 to Question 210499 on Capital Investment, if he will itemise the total cost for each capital project in (a) 2017, (b) 2018 and (c) 2019 whether fully or partially funded by central government.

Elizabeth Truss: As previously set out, HM Treasury and IPA do not centrally hold a complete set of funding allocations and cost data for individual capital projects, whether funded by central government or by the Devolved Administrations, or jointly. By the same token, HM Treasury and IPA do not have data on what proportion of funding for projects in the Devolved Administrations comes from central government and DAs’ own capital budgets. However, HM Treasury and IPA do publish aggregate capital spending allocations for departments and the Devolved Administrations, as well as more granular detail on infrastructure investment, for example in the recent Interim Response to the National Infrastructure Assessment at Budget 2018 and the National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline in November 2018. Aggregate capital spending allocations to departments and the Devolved Administrations in past years are published in Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2018 (p.26). Further regional breakdowns of capital spending by economic category, including for the Devolved Administrations, are published in Chapter 9 of the same document. Aggregate capital spending allocations for future years to 2020-21 are published in the Budget 2018 document (p.23). The Government will set capital budgets beyond 2020-21 at the Spending Review. The Government will also publish further, more detailed information on infrastructure in the full response to the National Infrastructure Assessment later this year.

Medicine: Education

Sir Mark Hendrick: To ask the Secretary of State for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with Health and Social Care on funding for additional domestic medical student places.

Sir Mark Hendrick: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of funding additional domestic medical student places to meet increasing demand on NHS services.

Sir Mark Hendrick: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps he is taking to ensure that the UK has the ability to train sufficient numbers of medical students for the NHS.

Elizabeth Truss: The government is delivering on its commitment to roll out an extra 1,500 medical school places. Around 630 have taken up places on medical courses in September 2018, bringing the total intake for 2018/19 to 6,701 - the highest on record. A further 690 will be available to students in 2019/20 and the remaining 180 places will be available in 2020/21. The NHS has established a national workforce group, which will look at the future medical workforce as part of delivering on the workforce aims set out in the Long-Term Plan. The NHS will publish a detailed workforce implementation plan in the Spring.

Borders: ICT

Jon Trickett: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an estimate of the value of the loss of trade the would result from border IT systems not being ready from the date that the UK leaves the EU.

Mel Stride: The government’s objective is to ensure that movement through the border is as frictionless as possible. Departments have done significant work to ensure that the IT systems for the border are ready for the day that the UK leaves the EU, and have contingency plans in place for the unlikely event that they are not. Government therefore does not expect loss of trade as a consequence of delays in UK border IT system readiness.

Public Expenditure: Dover

Charlie Elphicke: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the total government spending per person in the Dover constituency has been in each year between 2009 and 2018.

Elizabeth Truss: This information is not held centrally. HM Treasury do not collect expenditure information at a constituency level. The Ministry of Housing and Local Government produce local government expenditure statistics but this doesn’t align with constituency boundaries.

Post-18 Education and Funding Review

Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with the Department for Education on ensuring the review of post-18 education does not lead to an overall reduction in university funding.

Elizabeth Truss: Treasury Ministers and officials have regular discussions with their counterparts at DfE on a wide range of issues. In line with the practice of successive administrations, details of ministerial discussions are not normally disclosed.

Financial Services: Disadvantaged

Frank Field: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will place in the Library the minutes of each meeting of the Financial Inclusion Policy Forum  since its creation.

John Glen: The Government publishes a summary of each Financial Inclusion Policy Forum meeting on the gov.uk website to enable those outside the Forum to understand the Forum’s interests and direction of travel. The detailed minutes of each meeting are also recorded and distributed to Forum members. The Government decided not to publish the minutes of each meeting to ensure all members feel able to have a full and frank conversation at meetings. The summaries of the first two Forum meetings are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/summary-of-financial-inclusion-policy-forum-meeting-march-2018https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/summary-of-financial-inclusion-policy-forum-meeting-october-2018

Treasury: Staff

John McDonnell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether non-payroll staff working in (a) his Department and (b) HMRC are included in statutory gender pay gap reporting.

Robert Jenrick: HM Treasury and HMRC include non-payroll staff where appropriate as defined by the relevant regulations.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Social Rented Housing: Mental Illness

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure that people with mental health issues receive support to access social housing.

Kit Malthouse: The Regulator of Social Housing’s tenancy standard requires registered providers to develop and deliver allocations processes in a way which supports their effective use by the full range of actual and potential tenants, including those with support needs.In the Social Housing Green Paper we set out our intention to undertake an evidence collection exercise to help us understand how the allocations system is working and whether it is striking the right balance between fairness, support and aspiration. The Social Housing Green Paper also recognises that many landlords play a role that goes beyond their key responsibilities, which includes providing signposting to vital services such as mental health services. Through the Green Paper, we sought to gather evidence on the impact of the important role that many social landlords are playing. We are considering responses to the Green Paper and will respond in Spring 2019.Within social housing, and more widely, supported housing provides a vital service for vulnerable people, including people with mental health issues. Safeguarding provision and supply of appropriate supported accommodation is a priority for my Department and we will continue to provide capital grant funding to promote new supply of supported housing. Our August 2018 announcement confirming that funding for all supported housing is staying in Housing Benefit will have given increased confidence to the sector to continue to invest in new supply. We are also reviewing oversight arrangements for all supported housing. As a Government, we are investing record levels in mental health, spending £11.98 billion in 2017/18.

Social Services: Children

Bob Blackman: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential effects on children of not using the children’s services relative needs formula to distribute the social care support grant announced in Budget 2018.

Rishi Sunak: At Autumn Budget 2019, the Chancellor made available £410 million in 2019/20 for social care services in local authorities – both adult and children’s social care. We proposed in the provisional local government finance settlement to distribute these resources based on the existing Adult Social Care relative needs formula, as the best available method. Consultation responses overwhelmingly supported this approach which was confirmed in the final settlement. Local authorities have welcomed the additional funding and the discretion to spend in a way which best fits their community’s needs.

Waste Disposal: Planning Permission

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will call in planning applications ESS/36/17/BTE and ESS/37/17BTE for the Rivenhall Integrated Waste Facility in light of changes to the development proposals made since planning consent to consider the (a) environmental impact and (b) risk to human health of that proposed development.

Kit Malthouse: The Secretary of State has received a number of requests for him to call in the planning applications for the development of Rivenhall Integrated Waste Facility. As is normal practice, he will consider the planning issues raised by the applications in the light of call in policy if Essex County Council resolves to approve them. The comments you make will be taken into a consideration. In the meantime, it would not be appropriate for me to comment on the proposals. You will be advised of the decision in due course.

Public Places: Guide Dogs

Royston Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department provides funding to make public places guide dog friendly.

Kit Malthouse: Whilst we do not have any specific funding for guide dog friendly places, the National Planning Policy Framework expects planning policies and decisions to create places that are safe, inclusive and accessible, including designing for the needs of people with assistance dogs.Local authority spending priorities are ultimately a matter for local discretion. The 2019-20 provisional settlement confirms that Core Spending Power is forecast to increase from £45.1 billion in 2018-19 to £46.4 billion in 2019-20, a cash-increase of 2.8 per cent and a real-terms increase in resources available to local authorities.

Building Research Establishment

Mr Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the conclusions of the report entitled, External Fire Spread – Part 1 Background research, published by the Building Research Establishment, if he will make an assessment of the appropriateness of that organisation continuing in its role as an advisory body to his Department on fire safety.

Kit Malthouse: Building Research Establishment Ltd are an independent research and consultancy organisation which my Department commissions from time to time. Consultancy services are commissioned by the Department in line with standard public procurement practice.

Affordable Housing: South Yorkshire

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the press statment entitled, Brokenshire unveils £500 million affordable homes funding boost, published in January 2019, how many of the 11,000 homes will be built in (a) the Sheffield City Region and (b) Barnsley.

Kit Malthouse: On 31 January, we announced a further eight Strategic Partnerships between Homes England and housing associations which will deliver an additional 11,676 affordable homes for £496.7 million of grant.This takes our total to 23 Strategic Partnerships, which will deliver almost 40,000 additional affordable housing starts by March 2022.In total, almost 3,900 affordable homes will be delivered in Yorkshire and the Humber through Strategic Partnerships. Given the flexibility on delivery we provide Strategic Partners, we are not able to break these down below regional areas.All funding for Strategic Partnerships is from our £9 billion Affordable Homes Programme.

Affordable Housing: South Yorkshire

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the press announcement entitled, Brokenshire unveils £500 million affordable homes funding boost, how much of the £56.5 million that will be given to councils to support Brexit preparations will be allocated to (a) councils in the Sheffield City Region and (b) Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council.

Rishi Sunak: From the £56.5 million announced on 28 January, funding to help councils prepare for Brexit, councils in Sheffield City Region will receive £1,197,000. This will include £182,000 for the Combined Authority and £210,000 for Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council.

Travellers: Caravan Sites

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to publish the findings of the consultation on the use of powers for dealing with unauthorised development and encampments, which closed on 15 June 2018; and if he will make a statement.

Kit Malthouse: We have today published the Government’s response to the consultation on powers for dealing with unauthorised development and encampments. This can be found on the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government website: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/powers-for-dealing-with-unauthorised-development-and-encampments.

Ministry of Defence

Defence Equipment: Procurement

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the level of funding for the procurement of military equipment.

Stuart Andrew: We are committed to delivering large, complex and technologically challenging defence programmes to give our military the very best equipment. In November 2018 we published our most recent financial summary for the Equipment Plan, which explained that there is a significant level of financial risk in the plan and that forecast costs exceeded allocated funding by £7 billion across 10 years of the programme in April 2018.As part of our work to modernise and transform the Ministry of Defence, we are revising our approach to improving military capabilities and improving efficiency to ensure we focus on delivery of sustainable savings for reinvestment in the front-line. We also continue to work closely with the National Audit Office to improve our management of the Equipment Plan. We will take careful note of the concerns raised in the recent Public Accounts Committee report on the Equipment Plan and will produce a formal response in due course.

Defence Policy Board: Public Appointments

Martin Docherty-Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his Answer of 21 January 2019 to Question 207593, if he will publish the (a) criteria and (b) selection process for the membership of the Defence Policy Board.

Gavin Williamson: The Defence Policy Board will serve the important purpose of bringing outside perspectives and challenge to bear on Defence policy and strategy. Sir John Chilcot's  Iraq Inquiry recognised this as a key imperative for Defence and the Government as a whole.Following the publication of the report on the Modernising Defence Programme on 18 December 2018, we are working to establish the Board, including determining membership, and we will shortly be reaching out to prospective members. The criteria and selection process continue to be developed. We expect to establish the Board by the summer, at which point we will publish its membership and terms of reference.

Department for Work and Pensions

Universal Credit

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her speech entitled, Universal Credit: personal welfare, delivered on 11 January 2019, if she will publish the evidential basis for 60 per cent of payments to couples claiming universal credit are paid into the woman’s bank account.

Alok Sharma: Holding answer received on 28 January 2019



The requested information has been published and can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/gender-of-bank-account-holders-on-universal-credit

Work Capability Assessment

Jo Platt: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what performance indicators her Department has established for the length of time that a work capability reassessment should be carried out before the expiry of a current assessment.

Sarah Newton: Work Capability Assessments do not have expiry dates or performance indicators. As part of the Work Capability Assessment a healthcare professional gives advice on when they consider that a claimant should be reassessed, based on when it is expected that the individual’s condition will have improved to the point where looking for work may become a realistic option. Claimants are encouraged to provide any additional evidence in support of their claim, including from supporting medical professionals, which is taken into account in making the decision on their claim, including when the re-referral date is set. Re-referral dates can be 3, 6, 12, 18 or 24 months for those who have limited capability for work. For those who have limited capability for work-related activity, a three-year re-referral date can be recommended. Furthermore, from 29 September 2017 those placed in ESA’s Support Group and the UC equivalent who have the most severe and lifelong health conditions or disabilities, whose level of function would always mean that they would have Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity, and be unlikely ever to be able to move into work, will no longer be routinely reassessed.

Social Security Benefits

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 22 October 2018 to Question 182114 on Universal Credit, what definition of genuine hardship is used by her Department to determine whether exceptional circumstances apply to a claim for an advance payment of (a) legacy benefits, (b) personal independence payment and (c) universal credit.

Alok Sharma: Advances are available to those receiving Universal Credit, DWP legacy income related benefits (such as Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance), and Pension Credit. However, advances are not available for those receiving Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment (which are non means tested and for people with personal care and/or mobility needs because of a mental or physical disability). There is no prescriptive definition of hardship used in determining an advance award in Universal Credit, or a Short Term Benefit Advance for DWP legacy income related benefits: we tailor the support that we provide and consider each case on its own merits given the financial and other circumstances of the claimant and their immediate family.

Department for Work and Pensions: Brexit

Sir Vince Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2019 to Question 207551 on Department for Work and Pensions: Brexit, for what reason her Department is unable to estimate the amount of funding her Department has allocated to prepare for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Alok Sharma: DWP has been allocated £15m for 2019/20 for EU Exit activity however this includes costs for both deal and no deal preparation. Given the interaction between EU Exit activity and the Department’s other priorities, preparations for both deal and no deal have been undertaken by staff as part of their regular duties. We are therefore unable to disaggregate the costs specifically related to no deal EU Exit activity.

Social Security Benefits: Fibromyalgia

Angela Crawley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the needs of people with fibromyalgia who are making claims for (a) personal independence payments and (b) employment support allowance.

Angela Crawley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to meet with representatives of fibromyalgia (a) charities and (b) action groups in February 2019.

Sarah Newton: During the debate on the recognition of fibromyalgia as a disability in Westminster Hall on 15 January (https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2019-01-15/debates/02089EEE-DA76-4187-8607-CD9405A52EDB/RecognitionOfFibromyalgiaAsADisability,%20col%20315H), I offered to arrange a round table with Ministers from the relevant Departments - including the Department of Health and Social Care - together with myself in my role as Minister for Disabled People to discuss what more we can do about health services, research and benefits for those with fibromyalgia. This round table is due to take place later this month.

Social Security Benefits: Mental Illness

Angela Crawley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress she has made in enabling greater access to (a) personal independence payments and (b) employment support allowance for people with mental health difficulties.

Sarah Newton: We are committed to supporting those with mental health conditions get the benefits they are entitled to. All people claiming Personal Independence Payment (PIP) are encouraged to bring a companion to them to their face-to-face assessment and safeguards are in place for those with a mental health condition and who are without access to a support network, for example family, friends or other advisers. Latest statistics show that under PIP the proportion of recipients with a mental health condition getting the top rates of support is over five times higher compared to Disability Living Allowance (DLA): 31% under PIP compared 6% under DLA. As part of the Government’s continuous improvements of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) now has a greater focus on the impact of mental health conditions on claimants’ capability to work. A number of safeguards were built into the WCA from the outset, and we have introduced further improvements to try and ensure the process deals with people with mental health conditions fairly and accurately. All healthcare professionals carrying out assessments, whether for PIP or for the WCA, are given specific training in assessing individuals with mental health conditions and receive continuing professional education in order to remain up to speed with developments in the field of mental health.

Universal Credit

Rushanara Ali: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Written Statements of 7 June 2018, WS745 and 11 January 2019, WS1245 on universal credit, whether the backdated payment of severe disability premium will be subject to the capital limit rules.

Sarah Newton: The draft Universal Credit (Managed Migration Pilot and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019 contain provision regarding the treatment of the Severe Disability Premium lump sum payment. These draft regulations state that any amount paid as a lump sum is to be disregarded in the calculation of capital for the duration of the award or, if longer, twelve months from the date of that payment.

Universal Credit: Disability

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 15 January 2019 to Written Question 208905, Universal Credit: Disability, how many people in receipt of severe disability premium will receive back payments following their natural migration to universal credit.

Sarah Newton: It is not possible to confirm exactly how many people in receipt of the severe disability premium (SDP) will receive back payments following their natural migration to Universal Credit, since each case must be individually assessed to determine whether SDP eligibility would have continued following the end of their claim to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), Jobseekers’ Allowance (JSA) or Income Support (IS). To the end of November 2018 there were 13,400 claimants of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) in receipt of the severe disability premium (SDP) who had migrated to Universal Credit (UC). This migration to UC does not guarantee that claimants are eligible for transitional protection or back payments. Not all of ESA claimants with SDP who migrated to UC will have had an ongoing entitlement to SDP following the end of their ESA claim, and there will be some additional ESA claimants with SDP who migrated to UC and who may not be included in these figures owing to ongoing Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) and Appeal activity. I have explained in response to a point-of-order that information on claimants of Jobseekers’ Allowance (JSA) and Income Support (IS) in receipt of SDP who have migrated to UC would incur a disproportionate cost in response to a Parliamentary Question. The Department will explore the scope of an updated ad hoc statistical release for the ESA SDP data which represents the large majority of the SDP claimants. Since 16 January 2019 claimants who are in receipt of the Severe Disability Premium or who have been entitled to an award of an existing benefit that included SDP in the previous month, and who have continued to meet the SDP eligibility conditions, have been prevented from moving onto Universal Credit if they experience a change in circumstances. Instead, these claimants will continue to claim legacy benefits until DWP move them onto UC where transitional protection will be available, thereby safeguarding their existing benefit entitlement.

Universal Credit: Appeals

Hannah Bardell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much her Department has spent on contesting universal credit appeals (a) in total and (b) in cases where her Department has lost the appeal.

Alok Sharma: The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Universal Credit

Dr Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has provided any guidance to employers who have employees in receipt of universal credit on how to accurately report earnings to such reports are correct for any given assessment period.

Alok Sharma: The Government is working with employers to ensure that they use the most appropriate payment practices and comply with Real Time Information guidelines in order to minimise the incidence of erroneous or late reporting by employers, and HMRC have recently updated guidance to reiterate to employers the importance of reporting accurate dates and the impact on payment cycles.We have produced guidance to help ensure claimants, staff and representatives are aware of how different earnings patterns can affect their Universal Credit award. This can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-different-earning-patterns-and-your-payments/universal-credit-different-earning-patterns-and-your-payments-payment-cyclesAdditionally, claimants can always discuss the implications of this with their case managers and work coaches and can be referred to Personal Budgeting Support to help them manage their budgeting.

Universal Credit: Overpayments

Hannah Bardell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant of the Answer of 18 December 2018 to Question 202142 on Universal Credit: Overpayments, when her Department plans to provide the full answer to that question.

Alok Sharma: I replied to the hon. Member’s Question on 5 February 2019.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Bovine Tuberculosis: Disease Control

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many (a) holdings were tested for bovine tuberculosis, (b) animals were tested in each of those holdings and (c) of those animals tested positive using the interferon gamma test in each county of England in 2018.

George Eustice: Data on tuberculin skin testing for parts (a) and (b) is not held in the form requested. Published statistical data sets show that there were 67,137 tests on herds in the 10 months to October 2018. Total cattle tests in the same period amounted to 8,278,885. The full year figures for 2018 will not be available until March 2019, because the data has to meet the Code of Practice for Statistics. The data sets, which include county level data, and explanatory notes can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/tuberculosis-tb-in-cattle-in-great-britain The numbers of cattle that tested positive to the interferon gamma test in each county of England in 2018 is set out in the attached table. 



Gamma testing data for England
(Word Document, 36.63 KB)

Home Office

Members: Correspondence

Gareth Snell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when he plans to respond to the letter of 22 August 2018 from the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central on the closure of the Stoke-on-Trent immigration reporting centre.

Caroline Nokes: I apologise for the delay in responding to your letter of 22 August 2018. The Home Office is required to respond to such correspondence within 20 working days, and I am sorry that it has not been possible to provide a full reply within that timeframe. The response was issued on the 9th October 2018.

Asylum: Contracts

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the Statement of Requirements and Performance Regime for the new Asylum Accommodation and Support Services contract and Advice, Issue, Reporting and Eligibility contract will be published.

Caroline Nokes: The Asylum Accommodation and Support Services Statement of Requirements has already been shared with local authorities. Publication of The Statement of Requirements and Performance Regime will be in accordance with The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and Procurement Policy Note PPN02/17.

Home Office: Brexit

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much his Department has spent on consultancy fees relating to the UK leaving the EU since July 2016.

Caroline Nokes: The Home Office did not have an allocation for expenditure relating to the UK leaving the EU for the 2016/17 financial year.For the 2017/18 financial year no expenditure on consultancy fees relating to the UK leaving the EU was recorded.Figures for 2018/19 will be available once the Home Office’s Annual Report and Accounts are audited by the National Audit Office and laid before Parliament.

Immigration: EU Nationals

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate his Department has made of the number of staff hours it will take to process applications for settled status by non-UK EU citizens living in the UK.

Caroline Nokes: The EU Settlement Scheme will make it easy for EU citizens to get the status they need. They will only need to complete three key steps - prove their identity, show that that they live in the UK, and declare any criminal convictions. We will have circa 1,500 UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) European Casework staff in post before the end of the year to process applications.

Agriculture: Seasonal Workers

Angus Brendan MacNeil: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to ensure access by non-UK non-seasonal workers to the agri-food sector after UK leaves the EU.

Caroline Nokes: I refer the Honourable Member to the response that I gave to a question from the Honourable Member for Darlington on 22 October (180695).

UK Visas and Immigration: South Wales

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 1 November 2018 to Question 184982 on UK Visas and Immigration: South Wales, whether the contract with Sopra Steria includes any requirement on (a) opening and (b) access hours.

Caroline Nokes: Cardiff UK Visa and Citizenship Application Service will be open between 10am and 4pm on weekdays. The service is also available as an added value service between 4pm and 6pm (weekdays) and 9am and 5pm (Saturday)Newport UK Visa and Citizenship Application Service will be open every Tuesday and Friday between 9:30am and 12:30pm.Cardiff library access hours are 10am to 6pm Monday to SaturdayNewport library access hours are 9am to 5.30pm Tuesday to Friday.Sopra Steria can also cater for customers who wish to have more flex-ible mobile application services at a time of their choosing.

Immigration: EU Nationals

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to his Department’s announcement of 25 October 2018, New fund to support vulnerable EU citizens apply for settled status, whether that grant funding will be available to law firms.

Caroline Nokes: The invitation to tender documents will describe any constraints on what the funding may be utilised for in order to ensure the grant funding is delivered for intended outcomes and any restrictions on which organisations may apply. The grant scheme will enable organisations across the UK to apply for funding to support vulnerable EU citizens. Data modelling and sector engagement have been used to gauge potential geographical coverage and associated volumes that might be supported.

Asia Bibi

Wayne David: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions the Government has had with the family of Asia Bibi on granting them asylum following her release from prison in Pakistan.

Caroline Nokes: As the Prime Minister set out on 14 November, the release of Asia Bibi will be very welcome news to her family and to all those who have campaigned in Pakistan and around the world for her release. We welcome the assurances the Government of Pakistan has given on keeping her and her family safe and it is important that all countries seek to uphold the rule of law and afford security and protection for the rights of all citizens irrespective of faith or belief.It is a longstanding Government policy not to comment on individual cases. In accordance with our duty of confidentiality, we cannot confirm whether an asylum claim has been received or the outcome of such a request. Departing from this policy may put individuals and their family members in danger.

Immigrants: DNA

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of his Department’s compliance with data protection regulations and law in relation to DNA samples which were wrongly required to support immigration applications.

Caroline Nokes: The Home Office is currently considering the possible data protection implications associated with the incorrect mandating of DNA information.

Immigration: EU Nationals

Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of the funding for advertising the settled status scheme was spent on online advertising in the latest period for which figures are available.

Caroline Nokes: An error has been identified in the written answer given on 05 February 2019.The correct answer should have been:

The Home Office is putting in place measures to ensure that the EU Settlement Scheme is streamlined, user-friendly and accessible to all prospective applicants. That is why we are working in partnership with vulnerable group representatives, local authorities and other experts to make sure we reach everyone.Since November 2017, we have held monthly meetings with representatives of EU citizens on the design and development of the scheme and communications plans. We have been working closely with these groups to identify the needs of potentially vulnerable applicants including the disabled, elderly and isolated. There will be a broad range of support in place; for those who need non-specialist support there is the assisted digital service for technological support, and the Settlement Resolution Centre which will be able to assist with questions relating to the application process.When the scheme fully opens by 30 March, there will be further routes available to have identity documents checked. This includes posting passports or ID cards to the Home Office to be checked and returned, and there will be over 50 locations all over the country where applicants can have their document scanned.The Home Office is committed to supporting vulnerable EU citizens to obtain UK immigration status and we will continue to engage with representative groups to ensure the needs of vulnerable citizens are taken into account.All EU Settlement Scheme advertising since March 2018 has been digital, using online channels. (This was a campaign from March 2018 to July 2018).A broader range of channels will be used for advertising from March 2019.

Caroline Nokes: The Home Office is putting in place measures to ensure that the EU Settlement Scheme is streamlined, user-friendly and accessible to all prospective applicants. That is why we are working in partnership with vulnerable group representatives, local authorities and other experts to make sure we reach everyone.Since November 2017, we have held monthly meetings with representatives of EU citizens on the design and development of the scheme and communications plans. We have been working closely with these groups to identify the needs of potentially vulnerable applicants including the disabled, elderly and isolated. There will be a broad range of support in place; for those who need non-specialist support there is the assisted digital service for technological support, and the Settlement Resolution Centre which will be able to assist with questions relating to the application process.When the scheme fully opens by 30 March, there will be further routes available to have identity documents checked. This includes posting passports or ID cards to the Home Office to be checked and returned, and there will be over 50 locations all over the country where applicants can have their document scanned.The Home Office is committed to supporting vulnerable EU citizens to obtain UK immigration status and we will continue to engage with representative groups to ensure the needs of vulnerable citizens are taken into account.All EU Settlement Scheme advertising since March 2018 has been digital, using online channels. (This was a campaign from March 2018 to July 2018).A broader range of channels will be used for advertising from March 2019.

Anti-loitering Devices

Giles Watling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has plans to prohibit the use of sound-producing anti-loitering devices without a licence.

Victoria Atkins: The safety of anti-loitering devices is already regulated under the General Product Safety Regulation 2005 (GPSR). This requires all products intended for or likely to be used by consumers to be safe for normal or reasonably foreseeable use.It is for local agencies dealing with anti-social behaviour to determine how to best tackle issues in their area, and to ensure any devices they use comply with the relevant legislation.

101 Calls: Fees and Charges

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the revenue accrued as a result of the 15 pence per minute charge for a 101 telephone call is retained by his Department.

Mr Nick Hurd: The Home Office does not make any money from calls to the 101 Single Non-Emergency Number, nor do police forces. The 15 pence call charge goes directly to telecom service providers and covers the cost of handling calls and routing them to their destination. Calls to 101 cost 15 pence from mobile devices and landlines, regardless of duration, but are free from payphones.

101 Calls: Fees and Charges

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the effect of the 15 pence per minute 101 call charge on the finances of lower-income families.

Mr Nick Hurd: There is no obligation on telecom service providers to supply the 101 service free of charge as is the case with 999 under the 2003 Communications Act. Calls to 101 cost 15 pence from mobile devices and landlines, regardless of duration, but are free from payphones.The public have always paid to contact the police by telephone for non-emergencies and the 15p charge per call is a transparent rate. Police non-emergency numbers (such as 0845 numbers) which were used before 2011 could cost members of the public up to 40p per minute. While it may not be an option for everyone, the public can also report non-emergency crimes online via forces’ websites at a time that is convenient to them.

Stalking

Liz Saville Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many complaints have been made to the Police in England and Wales in relation to section 4A on stalking of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997; how many complaints have resulted in charges being made; how many charges have resulted in convictions; and how many convictions have resulted in custodial sentences in each year since 2013.

Mr Nick Hurd: The Home Office collects and publishes statistics on the number of stalking offences reported to and recorded by the police in England and Wales and how many of these have resulted in a charge/summons. These statistics are victim-based and data, for each year since 2013, can be found in police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tablesFigures for prosecutions, convictions and custodial sentences for the offences of stalking involving fear of violence and stalking involving serious alarm/distress are available by selecting the offences in the ‘detailed offence’ field from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) published experimental data here:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/738814/HO-Code-Tool-2017.xlsxThe MoJ statistics are based on defendants prosecuted in each time period and may relate to crimes recorded by the police in a previous reporting period due to the time-lag between cases being initially recorded by the police and then brought before the courts.

Domestic Violence

Liz Saville Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many complaints the police in England and Wales have received in relation to the offence of coercive control; how many complaints have resulted in the accused being charged; how many charges have resulted in a prosecution; how many prosecutions have resulted in a conviction; and how many people convicted have been given custodial sentences in each year since 2015.

Mr Nick Hurd: Engaging in controlling/coercive behaviour in an intimate / family relationship became a notifiable offence on 29 December 2015. As such, data has only been published for two complete financial years (2016/17 and 2017/18). Additionally, not all police forces have been able to supply data against this new offence.Of the 42 police forces for which data were available, 9,052 offences of coercive control were reported to and recorded by the police in England and Wales in the year ending March 2018. Data for the previous year showed that 38 forces for which data are available showed that there were 4,246 reported and recorded coercive control offences. These statistics are victim-based. Figures for prosecutions, convictions and custodial sentences for the offence of engaging in controlling or coercive behaviour are available by selecting it in the ‘offence’ field from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) published data here:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/733981/outcomes-by-offence-tool-2017-update.xlsxThe MoJ statistics are based on defendants prosecuted in each time period and may relate to crimes recorded by the police in a previous reporting period due to the time-lag between cases being initially recorded by the police and then brought before the courts.

Sharia Law Independent Review

Giles Watling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the Government plans to publish its response to the recommendations of the independent review into the application of sharia law in England and Wales.

Victoria Atkins: On 1 February 2018 the Government published the independent Sharia review and confirmed it would not be taking forward the recommendation to regulate Sharia Councils in a Written Ministerial Statement. The Government’s commitments in response to the review can be found in the Integrated Communities Strategy green paper, published on 14 March 2018 and available on gov.uk:https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/integrated-communities-strategy-green-paper.

Animal Experiments: Consumer Goods

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many animals have been experimented on in the UK in the last 12 months for household product ingredients.

Mr Ben Wallace: The Home Office publishes data on the use of animals in scientific procedures annually at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-of-scientific-procedures-on-living-animals.  The breakdown of the number of animals used for the testing of Household Product ingredients is published in the Animals in Science Regulation Unit’s Annual Reports at:https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/animals-in-science-regulation-unit-annual-reports.Data from 2018, for both numbers of procedures, and animals used in household product ingredient testing, will be published later this year.The HO has published guidance on the Household Products testing ban, which is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/660233/Household_products_testing_ban_advice_note.pdf

Visas: Ministers of Religion

Eddie Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Minister of Religion visas have been granted (a) within and (b) outside of the three week timescale target time in each of the last 12 months.

Caroline Nokes: The published quarterly transparency data does not separate the sub-categories within the wider Tier 2 route. We have therefore provided the published data for all Tier 2 subcategories which includes General, Intra Company Transfers, Minister of Religion and Sportspeople.Link to the latest published data:https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data#uk-visas-and-immigration

Migrant Workers: Exploitation

Gareth Snell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of being unable to access public funds on the ability to leave exploitative employment of workers under the (a) seasonal agricultural workers scheme pilot and (b) proposed 12-month short-term work visa scheme.

Caroline Nokes: The Seasonal Workers pilot will use scheme operators to ensure that migrant workers are matched with suitable UK employers.The short-term work visa proposals set out in the recent White Paper are consistent with our approach to our existing mobility arrangements, which do not permit access to public funds.

Visas: Migrant Workers

Gareth Snell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the consultation on his 19 December 2018 White Paper entitled The UK’s future skills-based immigration system will include the two proposed short-term work visas described in chapter 6 of that paper; and when that consultation will (a) begin and (b) conclude.

Caroline Nokes: The Government published its White Paper “The UK’s future skills-based immigration system” (Cm 9722) on 19 December 2018. The Home Office is launching a 12-month engagement process to enable businesses and other stakeholders to shape the final details of policy and processes contained within the White Paper.

Immigration: EU Nationals

Martyn Day: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications have been made to the EU settlement scheme (a) in total and (b) on each date on which it has been open to applications.

Martyn Day: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications have been made to the EU settlement scheme by (a) nationality and (b) sex.

Martyn Day: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications to the EU settlement scheme have resulted in the applicant (a) obtaining settled status, (b) obtaining pre-settled status and (c) being rejected for settled and pre-settled status (i) in total and (ii) by (A) nationality and (B) sex.

Martyn Day: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the (a) average waiting time is and (b) longest waiting time has been for a person applying to the EU settlement scheme and hearing the outcome of that application.

Martyn Day: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications to the EU settlement scheme are awaiting an outcome.

Caroline Nokes: EU citizens make a huge contribution to our economy and society, and we want them to stay. The EU Settlement Scheme enables them to do so. They will only need to complete three key steps - prove their identity, show that that they live in the UK, and declare any criminal convictions.The EU Settlement Scheme opened on a trial basis at the end of August and the second phase of live testing ended on 21 December. In light of the posi-tive progress, we commenced the wider public implementation of the scheme on 21 January. This will allow us to further test and develop the scheme, which will be fully open by 30 March.Over the two private beta test phases, over 30,000 applications have been received and the majority of those individuals have already been successfully processed through the scheme and granted status under it. A smaller propor-tion of cases were held pending further evidence of residence to be submitted from the applicant. Caseworkers are working directly with applicants on these cases.We have published two separate reports on the both private beta phases and we have committed to provide further details in due course of the planned phased implementation of the scheme. We will continue to update Parliament as part of that process. Please see the private beta reports here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/752872/181031_PB1_Report_Final.pdf.https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/eu-settlement-scheme-private-beta-2/eu-settlement-scheme-private-beta-testing-phase-2-report.

Visas: Applications

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate he has made of the number of people living in the UK under visitor visas who have been required to travel overseas to process their applications for (a) family visas, (b) work visas and (c) permanent leave to remain in (a) 2015, (b) 2016, (c) 2017 and (d) 2018.

Caroline Nokes: A visitor is a person who is coming to the UK, usually for up to six months, for a temporary purpose, for example as a tourist, to visit friends or family or to carry out a business activity.Visit visas are not granted for the purpose of living in the UK or making the UK their home through frequent and successive visits, therefore the information requested is not availableIndividuals in the UK as visitors may extend their visit whilst in the UK, as long as the total stay does not exceed 6 months.Applications to switch from visit to spouse or child settlement visa applications need to be made from overseas. Information on the number of in country extensions for main applicants previously in the visitor category is published in the quarterly Immigration Statistics, extensions table expc_01, latest edition at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-year-ending-september-2018/list-of-tables

Undocumented Migrants: France

Charlie Elphicke: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much money has been paid from the public purse to authorities in France in relation to the Sandhurst Treaty 2018; and on what dates those payments were made.

Charlie Elphicke: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much the Government has committed to pay to the Government of France under the Sandhurst Treaty 2018; and on what dates the Government plans to make those payments.

Charlie Elphicke: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many take charge requests have been made by France under the Sandhurst Treaty 2018.

Charlie Elphicke: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on how many occasions the UK-France Migration Committee established under Article 9 of the Sandhurst Treaty 2018 has met; on what dates and in which locations that committee met; and if he will place the minutes of those meetings and other documents relating to the committee in the Library.

Caroline Nokes: The UK Government committed €50 million in order to implement a range of agreed actions under the terms of the 2018 Sandhurst Treaty. Payments from this package have been made across the course of the 18/19 financial year as and when required by specific projects. The agreed programme of work is designed to improve security at the shared border in Northern France, reduce illegal migration flows towards northern French ports and support France in returning migrants with no legal right to be in Europe. We are forecasting to spend the full package allocated to this work.Within this package, £3.6 million was specifically allocated to funding the development of the Dublin process to support transfers of eligible children to the UK. The Dublin III Regulation is a long-standing mechanism between EU Member States to determine responsibility for examining asylum claims. The Government has committed to publishing regular updates on the number of requests processed under the Dublin III Regulation. The latest figures will be published on 28th February 2019 as part of the wider quarterly release of Migration Statistics.Migration cooperation between the UK and France, including implementation of the Sandhurst Treaty is overseen by the senior official UK-France Migration Committee, which generally meets alternately in Paris and London on a bi-monthly basis. The minutes of those meetings are confidential and to disclose them would risk injuring relations with an important foreign ally.

Visas: Biometrics

Naz Shah: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of printing IHS numbers on biometric cards for visa applicants.

Caroline Nokes: The Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) number is not used by the NHS for administrative purposes and there is no advantage in printing it on the biometric residence permit (BRP).Surcharge payers can use their BRP to evidence their status as part of the eligibility checks carried out by the NHS. The Home Office shares data with the NHS in England on those who have paid the surcharge, or who are exempt from doing so and are entitled to free NHS care. It also provides checking services for the NHS in other parts of the UK. These services help the NHS establish whether a patient is chargeable.

Immigration: EU Nationals

Ronnie Cowan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance has been provided to the UKVI MP account management team relating to addressing enquiries on the settled status scheme.

Caroline Nokes: The UKVI MP Account Management teams are provided with guidance on the EU Settlement Scheme, which is approved and updated by the relevant Policy and Operational experts as appropriate. When necessary, staff are also able to seek advice from relevant experts regarding the scheme, in order to address enquiries.

Department for International Development

Turkey: Overseas Aid

Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much Official Development Assistance her Department has allocated to Turkey in (a) 2015, (b) 2016, (c) 2017 and (d) 2019; and if he will make a statement.

Harriett Baldwin: DFID provided the following direct Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Turkey in calendar years 2015, 2016 and 2017. DFID’s final ODA spend figures in Turkey for 2018 will be published in Statistics on International Development this autumn. Spend figures for 2019 will be published in 2020. YearDFID ODA to Turkey, £ million20151.3201685.52017128.4 Source: Statistics on International Development The increase in funding between 2015 and 2017 represents DFID’s contribution to the EU Facility for Refugees in Turkey.

Palestinians: Overseas Aid

Dr Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how her Department monitors the use of aid that it provides to the Palestinian Authority.

Alistair Burt: Direct UK financial aid to the Palestinian Authority is channelled through the EU Palestinian-European Socio-Economic Management Assistance Mechanism (PEGASE). Our money goes into a special, dedicated bank account before being paid to vetted health and education public servants in the West Bank. The bank account is only used for UK aid. Independent auditors check that the money paid out from the special bank account only went to the vetted individuals after every disbursement. Audits also include spot checks and field visits.   DFID will also help the Palestinian water and electricity authorities to increase sustainable supplies, particularly in Gaza. Through The World Bank Partnership for Infrastructure Development in the West Bank and Gaza Multi Donor Trust Fund, UK aid will flow from the trust fund to dedicated accounts that will be managed in accordance with robust rules established by the World Bank. DFID will monitor this support through independent financial audits of project spending and through regular programme updates provided by the World Bank.   DFID funding to the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) is subject to the rigorous controls that are applied to all UK aid, including annual reviews, evaluation reports, and independent financial audits of programme spending. This information is triangulated with reporting from suppliers and programme partners, and through field visits.

Palestinians: Overseas Aid

Dr Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what information her Department holds on the uses of aid funding her Department has provided to Palestine.

Alistair Burt: UK aid in the OPTs supports the protection of the most vulnerable, economic growth and job creation, and the delivery of essential services. DFID have also provided a rapid and flexible response to emerging humanitarian crises in the OPTs. Our support to the International Committee of the Red Cross has provided emergency health care assistance to aid Gaza’s burdened health system. DFID’s support to UNICEF has helped address critical water and sanitation needs for 2 million Gazans.   DFID funding to the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) is subject to the rigorous controls that are applied to all UK aid, including annual reviews, evaluation reports, and independent financial audits of programme spending. This information is triangulated with reporting from suppliers and programme partners, and through field visits. DFID implements a robust monitoring and evaluation system to ensure that UK aid reaches the intended beneficiaries and achieves the best development outcomes, with a strong focus on ensuring value for money for the UK taxpayer. Information relating to monitoring and evaluation processes in the OPTs is stored in accordance with DFID guidelines.

Development Aid

Catherine McKinnell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of the UK leaving the EU on the UK’s international development sector.

Harriett Baldwin: Britain is a development superpower with world class development organisations delivering aid to those who need it most. DFID continues regularly to consult our stakeholders on the impact of the UK’s exit from the EU, including on eligibility for EU funding. The Withdrawal Agreement confirms the entitlement of UK organisations to participate in current EU programmes for their duration. Under a future partnership, any UK financial contribution to EU programmes would require eligibility for UK entities to bid for and implement relevant programmes. We remain committed to spending 0.7% of our national income on development assistance, and to achieving the UN’s Global Goals and ending extreme poverty by 2030.

Yemen: Humanitarian Aid

Karen Lee: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment she has made of the level of humanitarian need in Yemen.

Alistair Burt: Yemen remains the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with nearly 80 per cent of the entire population – 24 million people – requiring some form of humanitarian assistance and protection. The number of food insecure people has also risen from 17 million to over 20 million and for the first time, there are people (almost 240,000) in the most severe food security category, IPC 5 - at high risk of death.   The UK is providing £170 million in response to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen this financial year, including food for the equivalent of 4 million Yemenis for one month. Our funding over the next three years will screen 2.2 million children under the age of five for malnutrition and provide urgent treatment for 70,000 of the most vulnerable children. However, a political settlement is the only way to address the worsening humanitarian crisis and we encourage further constructive engagement from all parties to achieve this.

Cabinet Office

Cabinet Office: Brexit

Sir Vince Cable: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much of the £108 million allocated to his Department for Brexit preparations in 2018-19 and 2019-20 has been  allocated to preparing for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Chloe Smith: As per the previous PQ, between April 2018 and December 2018, the Cabinet Office spent £32.5m on activities associated with preparations to leave the European Union. We do not split our spending between deal or no deal preparations.

Iraq Committee of Inquiry

Liz Saville Roberts: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether representatives from (a) Guinea, (b) Chile, (c) Cameroon, (d) Angola, (e) Bulgaria and (f) Pakistan were called to give evidence to the Chilcot Inquiry.

Mr David Lidington: The Iraq Inquiry was independent of government, and the selection of its witnesses was a matter for the Inquiry. The Inquiry did not seek evidence from representatives of the countries listed.

Government Departments: Consultants

Jon Trickett: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much money was spent from the public purse on consultancy fees as recorded by the Cabinet Office Spend Analytic Database by each Department, in each of the last five financial years,

Oliver Dowden: The unaudited total reported spend through the Spend Analytic Database for consultancy services in the last five full financial years across all Government departments including ALB’s is as follows: 2013-14£648 million2014-15£676 million2015-16£635 million2016-17£964 million2017-18£1,549 million

Electoral Register: British Nationals Abroad

Nigel Huddleston: What plans he has to change the time limit on the entitlement of UK citizens living overseas to register to vote in UK parliamentary elections.

Chloe Smith: British citizens living abroad retain strong links with the United Kingdom, no matter how far they have travelled.The Government is supporting the Member for Montgomeryshire’s Private Member’s Bill on Overseas Electors which delivers our manifesto commitment to introduce votes for life.

Sustainable Development

Mary Creagh: What steps his Department has taken to prepare for the UK's voluntary national review of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Oliver Dowden: We are actively supporting preparations for the UK voluntary national review.Cabinet Office officials are working with DFID and other departments across government to ensure that the review fully demonstrates the UK’s domestic and international activity.

Department for International Trade

Department for International Trade: Brexit

Sir Vince Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how much of the £202 million allocated to his Department for Brexit preparations in 2018-19 and 2019-20 has been allocated to preparing for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

George Hollingbery: The Department for International Trade integrates scenario planning for EU exit into its overall programmes of work. ‘No deal’ planning is not undertaken by a distinct team and it is therefore not possible to separately identify the spend associated with the UK leaving the EU without a deal. HM Treasury has allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and the Devolved Administrations for EU exit preparations so far. This breaks down as: £412m of additional funding over the spending review period for the Department for Exiting the European Union, Department for International Trade and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office at Autumn Statement 2016. £286m of additional funding for 17/18 (a full breakdown of which can be found in Supplementary Estimates 17/18: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/679738/PU2137_Supplementary_estimates_web.pdf). Over £1.5bn of additional funding for 18/19. A full breakdown of the allocations can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS540, laid on the 13th March (https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-03-13/HCWS540/). Over £2bn of additional funding for 19/20. A full breakdown of the allocations can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS1205, laid on the 18th December (https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-12-18/HCWS1205/).

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Broadcasting Programmes: Children and Young People

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with the BBC on the Corporation increasing the number of programmes it broadcasts on television to appeal to people in the 15-30 demographic.

Margot James: Ministers have not discussed this issue with the BBC. The BBC is independent of government and editorial decisions such as television content for younger people is a matter for the BBC, not government.

Social Media: Data Protection

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans his Department has to prevent social media platforms accessing individual's personal data and internet history for the purposes of generating advertising revenue.

Margot James: The use of personal data for the purpose of targeted online advertising is subject to safeguards found in the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations 2003. The Data Protection Act imposes strict obligations on organisations to process people’s data fairly and lawfully and to ensure that any data collected is held securely. As part of this, organisations must ensure they have a legal basis for processing data, are clear and transparent about how personal data will be handled, and ensure that the data is processed in a way which individuals would expect. Organisations which fail to comply may be subject to enforcement action by the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Mobile Phones: Northern Ireland

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to improve mobile phone coverage in Northern Ireland for those who cannot receive any phone reception.

Margot James: We want the UK to have high quality mobile coverage where people live, work and travel. We are committed to extending geographic mobile coverage further to 95% of the UK by 2022, as well as providing an uninterrupted mobile signal on all major roads. Coverage in Northern Ireland continues to improve. Ofcom report that 98% of the landmass has 4G coverage from at least one Mobile Network Operator, up from 95% a year ago. However, while there have been significant improvements in coverage, the Government recognises there is more to do. We welcome the proposals set out in Ofcom’s consultation on awarding the 700 MHz and 3.6-3.8GHz spectrum bands to improve coverage in rural areas across the whole of the UK, including Northern Ireland. We continue to work with industry to support investment and deliver coverage improvements.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: Brexit

Sir Vince Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much of the £56 million allocated to his Department for Brexit preparations in 2018-19 and 2019-20 has been allocated to preparing for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Margot James: DCMS has been allocated £26.2m of funding for the full year 2018/19, which is being paid out in Supplementary Estimates 18/19. As at the end of December, our actual spend to date is £20.1m. Further spend to the end of March 2019 is expected to arise from staff, accommodation, IT, and legal costs, to meet the 2018-19 allocation.

China Central Television

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department has had discussions with (a) Ofcom and (b) the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on reports of the alleged use of forced confessions on China Central Television.

Margot James: Broadcasting regulation is a matter for Ofcom, as the independent regulator of television and radio. Ofcom are currently assessing complaints against China Global Television Network and if, following an investigation Ofcom find their rules have been broken, they will take the necessary enforcement action. Ofcom must be able to carry out its regulatory duties without government interference. DCMS Ministers and officials have regular discussions with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on a range of matters.

Football: Antisemitism

Rosie Duffield: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking with football clubs to help identify perpetrators of antisemitic hate crimes on match days.

Rosie Duffield: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions he has had with representatives of football clubs on the use of antisemitic chants at football matches.

Rosie Duffield: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions he has had with (a) the police and (b) other relevant authorities on the monitoring of antisemitism at football matches.

Mims Davies: All forms of hate crime are completely unacceptable, and government fully supports a zero tolerance approach by clubs, the football authorities and the police to dealing with anti-Semitic or other types of abuse when it occurs in our stadiums or sporting fields. There are examples of good work happening at clubs like Chelsea to tackle the issue of anti-Semitism, and by Kick It Out and the Community Security Trust, with government's support, to monitor anti-Semitic hate crimes in the UK and highlight the concern. Together, those bodies released an anti-Semitism guide for match day stewards to help improve awareness of anti-Semitic behaviour and offering information on the current laws around it, as well as advice on what action to take. As part of the Hate Crime Action Plan (2016) and its refresh (2018), the government have also been supporting Show Racism the Red Card to educate young people and adults on the dangers of holding discriminatory/prejudice sentiments and prevent the development of harmful opinions into hate crimes. The government is however alive to a rise in the numbers of reported incidents of discrimination at all levels of the sport, and I will be inviting together the FA, English Football League, Premier League, players’ representatives, and groups such as Stonewall and Kick It Out to discuss what more football can do to stamp out racist, homophobic and anti-semitic abuse at matches.

Gambling: Sports

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of (a) trends in the level of betting on football, (b) the effect of in-play betting on gambling levels and (c) the adequacy of existing regulations on gambling advertising in relation to sport.

Mims Davies: The Gambling Commission publishes Industry Statistics twice a year. These demonstrate an upward trend for remote betting on football, where gross gambling yield (GGY, the amount retained by operators after the payment of winnings but before the deduction of the costs of the operation) increased from £578 million to a little over £1 billion between 2015 and 2018. In the same period, offline betting on football fell by roughly one fifth, from £331 million to £265 million. This data can be found here: https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/news-action-and-statistics/Statistics-and-research/Statistics/Industry-statistics.aspx The Commission also tracks gambling participation rates and data for 2017 showed that football and horse racing were the most popular activities to place a bet on, with 5% of respondents having bet on football in the past four weeks, and 4% having done so for horse racing. This report also includes data on in-play betting, and found that 26% of online gamblers had made a bet in-play during the past four weeks, a figure relatively consistent with the previous years. The most recent report can be found here: https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/pdf/survey-data/gambling-participation-in-2017-behaviour-awareness-and-attitudes.pdf. Strict controls apply to the content of all gambling advertisements, including broadcast adverts and online, and adverts for gambling must not be broadcast in or around children’s TV programmes. The Review of Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility Measures set out a package of measures to strengthen protections around advertising further. These include significantly strengthened guidance from the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) on protecting vulnerable people which restricted urgent calls-to-action, such as ‘bet now’ adverts, tougher sanctions for operators who breach advertising codes and a multi-million pound safer gambling advertising campaign, which will include responsible gambling messages around sports. More recently, the gambling industry has announced that it will introduce a whistle to whistle ban on adverts during sporting events. We will continue to monitor issues around advertising and consider any new evidence carefully.

Treasure Trove: Conservation

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Treasury Act 1996 to promoting museum-led conservation.

Michael Ellis: The aim of the Treasure Act 1996 is to preserve important and significant finds for public collections. The intention is that at the end of the process governed by the Act and its associated code of practice, a treasure find will be acquired and conserved by a museum. The Act and code both emphasise the importance of conservation throughout the treasure find process. The code contains extensive information on the treatment of finds and urges finders to follow appropriate codes of conduct and to seek the advice of professional archaeologists of archaeological and conservation methods. The Portable Antiquities Scheme, which operates in England and Wales, and which records archaeological finds, also provides advice on conservation to finders.

Northern Ireland Office

Political Parties: Northern Ireland

Stuart C. McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to require the publication of details of electoral donations received by political parties in Northern Ireland between 2014 and 2017.

John Penrose: The Transparency of Donations and Loans etc. (Northern Ireland Political Parties) Order 2018 introduced transparency around donations and loans to political parties in Northern Ireland from July 2017. The date set in the legislation for introduction of the transparency regime followed a consultation process and represented a broad consensus across the Northern Ireland political parties. The Government has no plans in place to legislate to facilitate the publication of pre-2017 data. We are committed to undertaking an operational review to consider all aspects of the operation of the donation and loans systems in Northern Ireland, to review whether there might be a case for further reforms.